SCHOOL BUILDINGS 
SCHOOL GROUNDS 



AND 



THEIR IMPROVEMENT 




KANSAS 
1911 



School Buildings, School 
Grounds, and Their 
Improvement. ^ 5- 



KANSAS, 1911. 




ISSUED BY 

E. T. FAIRCHILD, 

State Superintendent Public Instruction. 



STATE PRINTING OFFICE, 
TOPEKA, 1911. 






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This little book is dedicated to the youth of our state. 
To the boys and girls whose lives and characters are 
vitally affected not by books alone, but also by the kind 
and nature of their surroundings. Schoolhouses com- 
modious and architecturally beautiful, properly lighted, 
scientifically heated, and sanitary in all their appoint- 
ments are a source of public profit. An interior ar- 
ranged with regard to comfort and beauty is a daily 
lesson in right living. Well kept grounds beautified 
with trees and shrubbery yield a return in higher 
standards. The whole means better, cleaner, and more 
desirable citizenship. 



SCHOOL BUILDINGS, SCHOOL GROUNDS, 
AND THEIR IMPROVEMENT. 




A MODEL RURAL SCHOOL BUILDING. 



School Grounds and Schoolhouse 
Architecture. 



INTRODUCTION. 

Many requests have come to this department from rural and 
village communities for information and suggestions relative to 
the construction of school buildings. The frequency of these 
inquiries is sufficient excuse for the present attempt to offer 
some advice and to give some illustrations based upon the con- 
clusions of modern architects, and of those school authorities 
who have given much study to this important subject. 

However, a still stronger reason for the present attempt lies 
in the great number of school buildings in this state that repre- 
sent no effort to comply with the modern demand for either 
architectural effect or economic or sanitary needs. 

The old type of the box schoolroom is, unhappily, too familiar 
to us all. The wonderful improvement that has taken place in 
public buildings in general, and in the homes of our land, finds 
but little counterpart in the average school. A trip through the 
rural districts of the state will convince the most doubting 
that the average schoolhouse and its grounds are bare, harsh, 
cheerless and unattractive. The child naturally loves the 
beautiful. In childhood the mind is impressionable and, 
whether it is realized or not, the discomforts, lack of harmony 
and beauty in the average school building unconsciously make 
a deep and lasting impression on his mind, tending to low 
ideals, and especially to the lack of care for the property of 
others. 

Many farmhouses of to-day are models of comfort and beauty. 
The buildings are often surrounded by orchards, well-kept 
groves, neat shrubbery and flower beds in the dooryards. 
Surely the time has arrived when the people of Kansas should 
interest themselves in school environment, and by well-directed 
efforts afford an opportunity to the child to study the beauties 
of nature at first hand. 

LOCATION. 

"In selecting a site for a school building, the questions of 
drainage, convenience, beauty of surroundings and accessi- 
bility should have prime consideration. Select, if possible, 
some plat of ground slightly elevated, that the surface may 
be properly drained and kept as free as possible from mud. 
It should be specially seen that water may not stand under the 

(3) 



4 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

building, and, if the elevation is not sufficient, by proper filling 
in beneath the building this trouble should be overcome. The 
location should be as nearly as possible central with reference 
to the pupils of the district, but other things should also be 
considered. It is better that some pupils should be put to a 
slight disadvantage than that attractiveness of surroundings, 
remoteness from environments likely to interfere with the 
work of the school, or other essentials, should be sacrificed." 
The north or west sides of the road are preferable for the 
school site as a protecting border of trees in each case can be 
planted on those sides without obstructing the front view. 
This will also afford the advantage of a south or east frontage. 




A large, substantial building in Douglas county in a fine location. When 
rebuilding, why not look for a location as favorable as this? 

THE WATER SUPPLY. 

The purity of the water supply for school is no less im- 
portant from the standpoint of health than that of the air 
supply. The greatest danger lies in the use of water taken 
from wells that are used only a portion of the year. Such 
water is certain to become stagnant. In the autumn before 
the term commences special care should be taken to pump 
all water out of the well and to clean the same if necessary; 
thereby much sickness may be avoided. The well, of course, 
should be so located as to avoid any contamination owing to 
vaults or drains. 

To insure against surface water a well should be located 
on high ground and earth should always be filled in around 
the well sufficient to insure drainage away from it. The well 



School Buildings and Grounds. 




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6 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

should be cemented over at the top to keep out waste water, 
insects and other small animals. The drilled or driven well 
is much more sanitary than the dug well and best for rural 
schools for the reason that such a well does not require 
cleaning. Its water is in less danger of being contaminated 
by surface water and by organic matter. While such a well 
ordinarily does not supply so much water as a dug well a rural 
school does not require very much water. 

Every school should make ample provision for an abundant 
supply of fresh water. The law is clear that it is the duty 
of school officers to provide all necessary appendages. A good 
well on the school grounds is as necessary as desks or black- 
boards. 

SIZE AND ADAPTATION OF GROUNDS. 

In this great state, where land is so plentiful, the school 
grounds should be large enough for separate playgrounds for 
boys and girls. It is a source of regret that when land was cheap 
in Kansas the necessity for large playgrounds was not recog- 
nized. The growing demand for teaching gardening and for 
outdoor experiments in elementary agriculture, for healthful 
and well-directed play, and for school grounds that shall be 
models of horticultural effect, makes ample ground space a 
necessity. For this purpose the school grounds should contain 
at least three acres, and five acres would not be too much. 
While the cities are cramped for playgrounds and purchase 
them only at a high cost, they can be secured in the country in 
sufficient size and at relatively small expense. 

It should be kept constantly in mind that the school grounds 
are to be adapted for play, that they should afford a protection 
from winds and that they should also be attractive. They 
should also be adapted for school gardening and experiments in 
agriculture. For the purpose of play the breadth should ex- 
ceed the depth where there are separate grounds for boys and 
girls. Where the playground is large, the building should be 
centrally located with relation to the size of the grounds and 
should be situated well toward the front. This will provide 
two fair-sized and well-proportioned playgrounds. Where the 
grounds are small and contain but one acre, utility must yield 
to symmetry and the building should be located well to the 
front and to one side, so as to leave one well-arranged play- 
ground. 

They should afford room for a variety of school games. They 
should especially be supplied with such apparatus as pupils can 
construct with tools and a workbench. It is not too much to 
expect rural school grounds to be equipped for playing basket 
ball, to be provided with a turning pole, swing, teeter board 
and other simple apparatus. A sand pile will interest primary 
pupils. Where school is maintained eight months or more a 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



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State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 







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School Buildings and Grounds. 9 

plat of ground should also be set aside for teaching and illus- 
trating gardening and experiments in agriculture, and this 
should be protected from trespassers. This plat is to illustrate 
merely what the pupils are to carry out at home on a large 
scale. It is not very practical in rural districts to keep up the 
school garden through the summer. 

BEAUTIFYING THE GROUNDS. 

"It is a poor type of school nowadays that has not a good playground 
attached." — Theodore Roosevelt. 

The spirit of loyalty to one's school should always find ex- 
pression in pride in the school grounds, in a readiness to 
beautify them, and in assistance in caring for them. There is 
really no excuse for leaving the school lot desolate even in our 
far western districts. Something may be done to plant a shrub 
or a few hardy plants, and with proper care trees can be started 
in every district in the state. In the central and eastern parts 
of the state it is simply a matter of choice. Arbor Day is a 
splendid time to begin the pleasant task of improving the 
school grounds. 

Ample playgrounds are essential to that vigorous health 
without which the mind cannot be alert and vigorous in its 
grasp of truth, yet on every school ground is room for the 
planting of flowers, of trees and of shrubs. 

The grounds should be cozy, homelike and attractive. In 
general, trees should be planted near the edge of the school 
grounds so that almost the entire space will be left for play- 
grounds. With a view also to avoiding the obstruction of light 
they should not be nearer the building than fifty or sixty feet. 
The grounds will consist of an open space fringed with wooded 
sides and should be an artistic picture and not merely a collec- 
tion of trees and bushes. Trees and shrubbery present a better 
effect if they are not set out in straight lines as in the nursery. 
They should be irregularly arranged and should consist of a 
somewhat compact mass of trees and shrubbery of varying 
sizes and styles of growth. 

The portion of the school grounds in front of the schoolhouse 
may be reserved as a lawn with low shrubbery appropriately 
placed. The side next to the highway should contain but 
little planting. A front fence spoils valuable school-ground 
space and almost invariably detracts from the appearance. 
Two walks should lead diagonally toward the two front corners, 
instead of a single walk. At appropriate places perennial 
flowers that bloom early may be planted. Early flowering 
perennials, such as crocuses and irises, should be planted in 
protected places in front of the schoolhouse. An appropriate 
place in the rear can be found for goldenrod and a bunch of 
hollyhocks, the wooded corners may be rounded out with shrub- 
bery, and the heavy border of trees relieved. 



10 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 







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A departure from the box type is this attractive Douglas county school 
building. Not only the building, but even the lawn, fence and well-trimmed 
trees give assurance that the school interests of this district are well looked 
after. 

In selecting trees and shrubbery the adaptability to climate 
is of first importance. In most localities in eastern Kansas a 
large variety of trees will grow. The cottonwood was a good 
pioneer tree for quick growth, but it is no longer preferable for 
school grounds. As large a number of species as possible is 
advisable in order that a knowledge of trees may be acquired. 
In eastern Kansas among the trees that will thrive well and be 
well adapted to school grounds are such trees as the elm, the 
hackberry, sugar maple and the tulip tree. In western Kansas 
the conditions for growing trees are not so favorable and the 
number of species will be fewer. The black locust is probably 
the most successful, and for growth on high, dry soil, Professor 
Dickens recommends the red and white elm, hackberry, 
Russian mulberry and Russian olive. Among the shrubbery 
he recommends the lilac, snowball, Philadelphus and spirea for 
growth except in trying localities. The list of hardy shrubs, in 
fact, is very extensive and they are so well known that it is 
superfluous to mention them. Trees should be planted much 
closer than will be desired at full growth. 

Is it too much to hope that, instead of the deserted looking 
spot called the school ground, there may be substituted in 
Kansas nearly 8000 attractive little parks ; and instead of the 
plain, cheerless, unsanitary box called a schoolhouse, there may 
be substituted as many cozy, cheerful, artistic little palaces 
where there is embodied in attractiveness as much as possible 
of all that is contained in that endearing word, home. 



School Buildings and Grounds, 



11 




A well wooded ground, and a place for pleasant memories. The trees 
would Interfere less with light and play if they had been planted nearer 
the edge. 




"How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood 
When fond recollection presents them to view !" 



12 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

"There is no bit of ground where beauty is more appropriate, where 
it will extend a wider and more constant blessing, and where it is more 
easily obtained. 

"There are ferns for shady corners; there are many varieties of tall 
goldenrod that, bending in September breezes, will beckon the children 
back to school as to a golden way to knowledge; there are quantities of 
sumac which, put in clumps against the building or the high back fence, 
will change an ugly barrier into a gorgeous screen; there are vines that 
ask only for a chance to climb lovingly over the doors and windows; 
there are little trees only waiting for an opportunity to spread their 
roots in the school yard and grow great there, entering tirelessly into the 
games of a ceaseless procession of scampering children, receiving into 
their arms the boys and accepting the confidences of the whispering girls 
and making for all when the sun is high a beautiful, welcome shade. 
There are violets and snowdrops that are eager to play hide and seek in 
the school yard in the early spring days, and in some parts of the state 
there are wild roses to bloom in June and lend their sweetness for all 
the summer in the school. 

"Since we can so easily make the school yard beautiful, a little oasis 
in the lives of ourselves and of those who are to follow us, and since it is 
fun to do it — going out into the woods and fields for what we want — let 
us resolve that next fall there shall not be a single barren school yard in 
all the rural districts of the state." 

A pamphlet on Tree Culture, with suggestions concerning 
school grounds, can be secured from the State Agricultural 
College, at Manhattan. 

Why not designate a planting and improvement day for the 
school and invite the patrons of the district to participate in 
planting trees and shrubs and in a general improvement of the 
school buildings and school grounds? Arbor Day would be an 
appropriate time. 

IMPROVEMENT OF SCHOOL GROUNDS. 

By Prof. Albert Dickens, Professor of Horticulture, State Agricultural College, 

Manhattan, Kan. 

[As to what to plant, when to plant, how to plant and how to care for them, 
the following will be found most helpful. The suggestions in this article should 
be carried out on the many neglected school grounds of the state.] 

This sermon on school-ground improvement is one that I have tried to 
preach for some time. In my judgment, it is the most important and the 
most difficult of any of the problems in civic improvement. The average 
country cemetery is sorrowfully neglected, as a rule, but its treatment is 
careful and generous compared with the school grounds of the average 
country district. Some day we shall realize that all these factors of 
environment are formative influences, and shall not wonder that the 
character formed in surroundings devoid of beauty has hard, coarse and 
cruel lines in its make-up. 

It is an easy matter to picture an ideal country school — its clean-swept 
walk to the road, its ample playground, its windbreak of evergreens, its 
groups of hard- and soft-wood species, borders of shrubs and beds of bulbs 
for early spring and perennials for summer and fall. But to get it— to 
find some way to overcome the serious obstacles — is worthy the attention 
of statesmen and club women. 

Nearly every district has made an attempt. That is one of the hard 
things to forget — one of the reasons so many districts fear to try again. 
They had a spasm of civic righteousness — an Arbor Day revival — and 
every patron dug a hole in the hard, dry ground, every child brought a 
tree — some with few roots, some carried a couple of miles with the roots 



School Buildings and Grounds. 13 

exposed to sun and wind — and then they were planted and, in some cases, 
watered for the summer; and the days grew warm and the weeds grew 
high, and the next fall the two or three trees alive were not noticed 
when the director went over, the Friday before school opened, with his 
mower; and so ended that attempt at a school yard beautiful. 

It ought to be possible to convince the patrons of every district that a 
single acre of land is not sufficient ground upon which to grow big, 
bright, broad-minded boys and girls; that two, or three, or four acres of 
land, well planned as to baseball diamond, basket-ball court and a good, 
free run for dare-base and pull-away, are giving the state and the world 
better results than though they were devoted to corn and alfalfa. This, I 
believe, is the first problem of great magnitude — to get the ground — and 
it must be' considered. Children must play. The noon hour, when they 
eat for five minutes and play fifty-five minutes, is all-important in a 
child's life. 



SENECA PUBLIC SCHOOL. 



For many years flowers have beautified these grounds. Note how the 
ground slopes away from the building. 

The ground can be bought for a given price per acre. The state may 
condemn it, but the state cannot mandamus trees to grow or shrubs to 
flower. Happy the district that can contract with some good tree grower 
to plant and care for its grounds; can fix the responsibility for soil prep- 
aration and cultivation. These are the chief factors in success with trees. 
In every district in the state, if the soil is thoroughly prepared and the 
trees in good condition, well set and well cultivated, they will succeed. 
Not always, nor all of them; but a fair measure of success will be se- 
cured. 

With the ground secured, who is to do the work? Thorough prepara- 
tion means more than digging a hole in the sod. It means a series of 
deep plowings with frequent cultivation, and then deeper plowing and a 
heavy harrowing to firm the soil. It is a much more difficult matter to 
grow trees in small groups in sod than in a shelter belt or windbreak 
sufficiently large to allow the use of horse tools in soil preparation and 
cultivation. Where the big bluestem grass grows naturally it is a simple 
matter to get soil ready for trees. The large roots have left humus in 
the soil to a considerable depth, and there is a reservoir for subsoil 
moisture. Where buffalo grass alone is found, a few years of cropping 
with deep-rooted plants is necessary: Corn or cane, followed by cowpeas, 
or perhaps alfalfa in rows, well cultivated for a few years; this, with a 
few loads of well-rotted manure well worked in, will give a soil in which 



14 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

trees will grow. To have this work done in the proper way and at the 
proper time is the problem. In some localities it will require one-half 
day's work with a team ten or fifteen times during the season. No one can 
foresee just when the conditions will be right for the work. Any good 
farmer in the locality knows when the work should be done. The prob- 
lem is to find the man with the "know-how" to do it or see that it is done. 

Volunteer work is sometimes efficient, but it must be well directed and 
systematized. Some districts have considered the plan of a Saturday 
afternoon each week at the schoolhouse — a week-end party — when the 
trees shall be cultivated and hoed, the flowers weeded, and after that a 
ball game, or other sports. In the ideal neighborhood it might work well. 
In others, the big boys might forget the hoes, though never the bats. But 
in any plan it is necessary that some one be in authority to decide when to 
cultivate, and when it is inadvisable to work the soil. To be effective, the 
work must be organized. A plan for the planting should be made and 
recorded, showing the location of walks, windbreaks, groups of trees, 
shrubbery, borders and playground limits. The list of species to be 
planted should be well considered, and the method of securing trees de- 
cided. Whether they come from the neighboring woods, from near-by 
plantations or distant nursery, they must be secured in good season for 
planting. 

When the soil is in good condition, fall planting may be done, but the 
combination of eold weather and dry air is a trying one for transplanted 
trees, and spring planting is somewhat safer. But it should be done early 
in order that the root growth may begin before the buds swell. If large 
trees are set, they should be pruned quite severely, and even young trees 
are usually stronger for having been cut back. With soil in good condi- 
tion, the other requisites for setting are holes of sufficient size to allow 
roots their natural spread, and deep enough that the tree may stand a 
little deeper in the soil than it was previous to transplanting; and the 
ground must be well firmed about the roots. If at all dry, a good wetting 
of the soil when the hole is two-thirds or three-fourths full is advisable, 
and after the water settles fill in the upper layer with drier soil. The 
surface must be kept well pulverized all the time to prevent the soil about 
the roots from becoming dry; and there have been seasons when it was 
necessary to water newly set trees during spring and summer in order to 
insure their success. If watering is necessary, it should be given in con- 
siderable quantity at considerable intervals, usually not oftener than once 
in two or three weeks, and the soil should be thoroughly wet. A little 
water applied frequently is liable to do more harm than good. After 
watering, the surface must be pulverized in order to prevent the soil pack- 
ing. 

In forming good trees, the ideal to be kept in mind is that of a straight 
central trunk, with the branches well distributed along the trunk. To 
secure a tree that approaches this ideal requires frequent observation 
and but little heavy cutting — a twig cut away during the first season will 
obviate the use of the saw a few years later, and it is difficult to reform 
trees that have been neglected a few years. The grower must, of course, 
remember that leaves are necessary for any growth, and severe pruning 
is to be avoided. . 

In selecting species, the adaptability to location and soil is of first im- 
portance. In most localities in the eastern half of Kansas the list may be 
a long one. In any new planting, some of the quick-growing species 
should be mixed with slower and harder-wooded sorts, and in time be cut 
away, leaving the more valuable trees to occupy the ground. Of these 
pioneer trees, the cottonwood is good. Carolina poplar and Norway pop- 
lar are often preferred, because as nursery trees they are grown from 
cuttings from staminate-flowered trees and the cotton nuisance is avoided. 
A little care in selecting cottonwood will secure the same result. Soft 
maple is another of the quick-growing species, but the old wood becomes 
brittle and breaks badly in exposed situations. Golden willow makes 
quick growth and adds to the winter landscape the charm of the bright 
yellow of the bark. Such slow-growing trees as walnut and the oaks may 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



15 



be planted in alternate rows, if rows are spaced six to eight feet apart. 
As large a number of species as possible is advisable, in order that a 
knowledge of trees may be acquired. In eastern Kansas, thirty to fifty 
species may be expected to succeed, including two ash, three elm, six or 
eight oaks, hickory, walnut, mulberry, black cherry, catalpa, sycamore, 
coffee bean, redbud, honey locust, and the pines (Austrian, Scotch, Pon- 
derosa), red cedar, and Norway, white and Colorado spruce. Such a 
collection would be a source of pride and satisfaction, and would almost 
certainly be increased as years go by. In the western half of Kansas 
conditions for tree growth are less favorable and the list of species will 
be shorter. Honey locust is probably the most useful species on high, dry 
soil, but green ash, the elms (both red and white) , hackberry and Russian 
mulberry are quite hardy, and the Russian olive is one of the small trees 
that endures upland conditions specially well, and with its silvery leaves 
helps in the matter of variety. The hardy shrubs are so numerous that a 
list is almost superfluous, but the lilacs and snowballs, Philadelphus, and 
spireas, may be grown, except in very trying localities, and there the elder- 
berry, sumac, lead plant and china berry may be planted with very fair 
chance for success. 

With some outlay of expense and energy, every school ground might 
well become a center of interest in horticulture and forestry that in years 
to come would, in the bettered homes and broadened men and women, re- 
pay each year a thousandfold all the cost of investment. 




A good Marshall county district schoolhouse. The surroundings would be 
much improved by the planting of trees and shrubbery. If your school 
grounds are not well fringed with trees, why not invite the whole district to 
observe next Arbor Day? 



16 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




School Buildings and Grounds. 17 



BEAUTIFYING THE SCHOOL GROUNDS. 

By S. W. Black. 

[The planting shown in the cut of the Cherokee high school on the preceding page 
was planned by Mr. Black. Will your district this year begin to put Mr. Black's 
Ideas into effect on your school grounds? If all school districts were to do so, what 
a wonderful transformation would be made in the appearance of the school sur- 
roundings throughout the state.] 

That the school grounds of a district reflect the sentiments of the 
patrons is more or less axiomatic. It is also true that it is the business 
of the teacher to make people want those things that will develop the 
esthetic side of their natures and cultivate tastes that make for civic 
betterment. Surround children with the beauties of tree and shrub and 
flower and you will beget in them a love of the good, the true and the 
beautiful. 

Admitting that it is one of the missions of the schools to arouse and 
foster a sentiment for the beautiful in the students (and patrons as 
well) , let us consider what tribute nature may be expected to pay in the 
way of arboreal and floral decorations. 

DIVISIONS OF THE STATE. 

Climatically, the state naturally divides itself into three more or less 
well-defined divisions, growing out of the mean annual rainfall, char- 
acter of soil, and elevation. 

The Eastern Division. 

In the eastern one-third of the state almost all of the common de- 
ciduous trees and shrubs, and the evergreens as well, may be grown 
successfully. From an experience of more than twenty years of tree 
planting and culture, I am convinced that it is not so much a matter of 
variety as it is the manner of planting and subsequent care and attention 
that brings success. I have seen the tulip, the coffee bean and other 
more of less tender trees grow and flourish like the eastern bay tree 
under the tender, loving care of an enthusiastic planter. 

Nothing could be more stately and beautiful than a thrifty-growing 
elm, lifting its verdant arms into the heavens and spreading its leafy 
branches to cover with its enticing shade a small army of school 
children. 

Varieties. — In the eastern division, then, we may plant different 
varieties of the oak, hickory, ash, walnut and box elder. For quick 
growth one may use the speciosa catalpa, the Carolina poplar and the 
maple. The willow, the cut-leaved weeping birch and quaking aspen 
are pretty and ornamental. 

For evergreens, the Norway spruce, the Colorado blue spruce, the 
juniper, the cedars, the arbor vitas and the common sorts of pines lend 
themselves to schemes of ornamentation as well as to mere individual 
examples of arboreal beauty. 

Of shrubs, one may plant, successfully, haws, persimmons, redbud, 
hazelnut, laurel, pawpaw and other wild varieties which may be dug 
up in the woods and transplanted, to form cozy nooks and leafy retreats 
on the school grounds. Over these low-growing clumps, over the wide- 
spreading limbs of the trees, or over a rockery prepared specially for 
that purpose, the wild grape, the trumpet vine or the Virginia creeper 
may be trailed with classic effect. 

For tame shrubs, we may have the flowering almond and currant, the 
japonica or Japan quince, the althea, the lilacs, snowballs, hydrangeas, 
weigelia, and the yucca. Tame vines may also be used for the above 
purposes. For clambering over screens and outbuildings, one may train 
the rambler roses, the honeysuckles, clematis paniculata and clematis 

-2 



18 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

jockmanii. If one does not object to the trouble of taking care of the 
roots in winter, the Mexican morning-glory and the Madeira vines are 
very pretty and effective. 

With the exception of the last two, the above-mentioned trees, shrubs 
and vines are perennials, and when once well rooted and growing in a 
healthy and thrifty manner they may be trusted to take care of them- 
selves and yield their wealth of beauty and fragrance for many years, if 
kept free from weeds and grass. They will require pruning once a year, 
and if any members of the above family should become infested with 
worms, bugs, scales and fungi, heroic treatment with sprays, fungicides 
or other applications in use in orchards will be necessary. In the case 
of worms such as tent caterpillar, hand picking or the torch should be 
resorted to. 



How the tree planting of the builders of Kansas is now appreciated ! But this 
good work among rural schools is little more than begun. 

It may be mentioned at this point that some of the standard varie- 
ties of perennial roses may be used for clumps, hedges or shields with 
very satisfactory results. If well spaded around, pruned, and mulched 
with strawy manure during the winter, they will furnish a wealth of 
beautiful flowers during the latter part of an eight-months term of 
school. 

Hedges may be formed of California privet, barberry, or even per- 
ennial roses. The Jacqueminot is one of the best of these, because when 
once well set and thoroughly at home they will bloom twice, and some- 
times three times, in a season. Evergreen hedges are quite common in 
the Eastern states and are very stately and beautiful in effect, but they 
have not grown into favor in the West because they have a tendency to 
die up from the roots and grow ragged unless carefully sheared and 
tended. . , 

The Japan and German iris, the corn and tiger lilies, the flags and 
daffodils, are of very easy cultural management, and in company with 
the daisies, the perennial phlox and the columbine will furnish a wealth 
of flowers throughout the entire spring and summer season. 

Modern horticulture has of late years developed some magnificent 



School Buildings and Grounds. 19 

strains of the peony. The range of color is bewildering. They are 
reasonably hardy, and when once established develop into great clumps 
of splendid blossoms, many specimens of which appear more like bou- 
quets than single flowers. 

I do not think the annuals should receive very much attention upon 
our rural school grounds, at least until our schoolhouses have become 
the civic and social centers of the districts. When the schoolhouses of 
the future are open throughout the year, on Sunday as well as week 
days, for religious meetings, men's and women's clubs, for library and 
literary as well as for school purposes, then may we hope that the rural 
school yards shall be kept as beautiful as should the city school yard 
be kept. 

In cities and small towns, where a regular janitor is employed, a 
hotbed may be made, and the common annuals may be grown and trans- 
planted into formal beds or borders. When the season has advanced 
sufficiently seed may be sowed in the open ground and all the old- 
fashioned garden flowers, as well as the new-fangled posies, may be 
grown in profusion, if only they receive a reasonable amount of care 
and attention. 

Where money can be spared (and not much is required), very beau- 
tiful effects may be secured by a generous planting of tulips, crocuses, 
hyacinths and narcissi. If bedded late in the fall and properly mulched 
with straw or leaves, they bloom in the early spring, and so gorgeous is 
the display of floral wealth that they never fail to call forth unstinted 
exclamations of praise. With the exception of crocuses and narcissi, 
the bulbs should be lifted late in the spring, as soon as the foliage has 
died down, and they should be stored in a cool, dry place until the return 
of fall, when they may be reset for another succession of blooms. As 
soon as the ground is thoroughly warmed, the bulbs of the gladiolus 
should be planted in beds for summer blooming. The last few years has 
seen a wonderful development of this splendid and deservedly popular 
flower. For cut flowers and interior decorations it has few equals and 
almost no superior. 

As soon as the frost is out of the ground in the springtime, sweet 
peas should be planted in trenches and trained on chicken-wire fencing 
or brush. 

The Middle Division. 

In the second or middle section of the state nearly all of the above 
plants may be grown, but greater care must be exercised in getting them 
well set and growing. If the season is at all dry it will require some 
watering during the summer and early fall of the first two years. This 
watering should be carefully done. A thorough wetting once a week 
is better than a small supply each day. This application of water should 
not be continued too late in the fall, as false growth is thus stimulated, 
and going into the winter in too succulent a condition the plants may be 
injured or even killed if the weather is severe. This work need not be 
very burdensome, and will be willingly and even gladly done if the 
proper pride and public spirit are aroused by the teacher and county 
superintendent. It may be that the more hardy types of the above- 
mentioned plants will be required in this division, but if a number of 
the wild types are dug up in the woods and carefully transplanted to the 
school grounds at the proper time, and systematically tended until a firm 
foothold is obtained and they are thoroughly established in the soil, little 
further care, more than reasonable pruning and cultivation, will be 
required. 

Remember that in this division hardier types will be required and 
careful nursing at the proper time. 

The Western Division. 

With the western division it is far otherwise. The long dry spells 
with which western Kansas is not infrequently visited makes the planting 
and growing of trees, shrubs and flowers more or less problematical. 



20 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

The black locust, the Cottonwood, the Carolina poplar, the Russian 
mulberry, the Bois-de-arc and the Russian willow may be reasonably 
depended upon if the ground is properly prepared and suitably culti- 
vated after each driving rain. At such times the surface crust must be 
thoroughly broken up and a soil mulch must be maintained. 

A mulch of straw or weeds is usually worth while — always, unless 
worms, bugs and rodents are thus harbored. Screens of heavy tarred 
paper or boards are useful in protecting the trunks of young trees from 
the scalding sun and from the hail that sometimes visits this section. 
If the more tender shrubs and flowers are grown at all, it will be neces- 
sary to resort to some method of irrigation. At Garden City parties 
are experimenting with a method of subirrigation which seems to hold 
out some hopes of success. Concrete tiles are laid below frost line and 
water is supplied from a bored well by windmill power. There is no 
serious reason why every school ground in western Kansas should not be 
supplied with a good well and windmill. Surface irrigation may be re- 
sorted to ir. that case with every hope of success. 

Windbreaks are an imperative necessity in this section, and they may 
be grown of locust or of Russian mulberry. They should consist of at 
least ten rows of trees deep and should receive the same careful treat- 
ment as above indicated. 

When the pride of the district has been thoroughly aroused and the 
tastes of the people have been duly cultivated, no trouble will be experi- 
enced in securing the requisite care and attention to the school grounds. 
When this point has been reached, a number of the more hardy trees, 
shrubs and flowers of the eastern section may be successfully grown in 
the western section, and the boys and girls of that part of the state will 
then be surrounded by that beauty and verdure of nature so necessary 
for soul growth and the development of the esthetic tastes that beget a 
love for the good, the beautiful and the true. 

SUGGESTIONS. 

1. If native trees are growing on the school grounds so much the 
better. If it seems necessary to use less than one acre of ground, ar- 
rangements should be made with some farmer who has land lying con- 
tiguous for sufficient room for playgrounds. Children should not be 
permitted to play in the road except in extreme cases. 

2. A club should be formed in each district whose duty it shall be to 
attend to the school grounds, much as cemetery associations are main- 
tained in some rural neighborhoods. 

3. If the county superintendent is handy with the camera, and a 
spirit of rivalry can be aroused, much may be done to stimulate this 
movement by having a display of photographs in various parts of the 
county. The Mail and Breeze, the Topeka Capital and the Kansas 
Farmer will be glad to publish pictures of specially effective views, if 
photographs are furnished them. Brief explanatory notes will also 
find a welcome place in the above papers, especially if they describe 
successful methods of planting and culture. 

4. Have children do as much of the preparation, planting and taking 
care of the grounds as possible. 

5. Make a permanent map of the school grounds and upon it locate 
each tree and shrub. Names of same should be written on the edge 
of the map, indicated by suitable marks or numbers. 

6. In your agriculture classes discuss the best methods of securing 
trees and shrubs, the most scientific ways of preparing the ground and 
setting out the same, and the most rational plans for care and culture 
of them. When these schemes have been well worked out in the school- 
room, take the students out upon the school grounds and have them put 
these lessons into practical operation. 

7. Do not wait for Arbor Day. It may be too early or come too late 
for your section. Have your exercises on that day and inculcate the 



School Buildings and Grounds. 21 

lessons, but do the work when the weather and soil are just right. Be 
sure that the soil is in proper tilth by preparation made sufficiently long 
in advance to permit settling of the ground. 

8. Lay your plans during the winter. Plat your grounds on paper. 
Place your order with the nursery or locate the trees and shrubs in their 
natural habitat, and be , ready for a vigorous campaign when spring 
opens. 

LOCATION. 

As a rule, trees should be located on the edges of the grounds, and 
shrubs and low-growing plants should be arranged as a border fringing 
the trees thus set. Vines may be trained over trees, fences and trellises. 
Sometimes very pretty effects may be secured by procuring an old dead 
tree with many prongs and setting it in a suitable location. Over this 
a trumpet vine, a wild grape or a Virginia creeper may be festooned. 
Rocks may be piled in a rustic manner and ferns and creepers may be 
set in soil placed in the cracks and crevices. The effect is very striking 
if care is taken to give this rockery a natural appearance. It must be 
remembered that plants thus set are more likely to suffer from lack 
of moisture than if growing in a natural manner in the ground. 

CAUTIONS. 

1. Do not hide the schoolhouse from the road by massing trees, vines 
and shrubs in front of it. 

2. Do not set trees on the outside of the fence unless well protected. 

3. Remember you do not need to know all about arboriculture and 
horticulture to succeed. If you have the will you will find the way. 

4. Observe grounds that have been beautified, consult the ones who 
did the work, and diligently follow all that is best in their suggestions. 

Note. — The United States Department of Agriculture will furnish 
you bulletins that will be helpful in planning and carrying out the 
above work. 



A good building on neglected grounds. Nature unaided gave this wild, 
densely wooded grove, but the child looks in vain for a fine, large playground. 
Why not enlarge our many small, cramped playgrounds? 



22 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



PLANTING PLAN FOR A RURAL SCHOOL YARD. 

By Chas. A. Scott, State Forester. 

[Here are good ideas from State Forester Chas. A. Scott as to what trees and 
shrubs to plant and where to plant them. His plans provide for grounds large 
enough for wooded picnic grounds on one side.] 

A planting plan for a rural school yard is not at all an easy plan to 
prepare and carry out to a successful execution, because of the adverse 
conditions to tree growth usually found on school grounds. The species of 
trees to be selected for such a planting will be determined entirely by the 
regional location of the grounds within the state. In the eastern third of 
the state there are seventy species of trees found growing under natural 
conditions; in the middle third there are fourteen native species; while 
in the western third there are but ten native species. In each of these 
zones of tree distribution there are probably as many introduced species 
suitable for planting as there are natives. In the eastern part of the state 
this gives us a wide range of species to select from, while in the western 
part the choice lies within narrow limits. 

The plan proposed here is not prepared with the idea that it is a model 
for any specific locality, but rather to illustrate a few points that should 
be kept in mind when preparing a plan. In such preparation one must 
have a definite purpose in mind and the plans must be arranged so as to 
fulfill the purpose. 

The district schools are beginning to give way to the consolidated 
schools and the consolidated schools are demanding better schoolhouses, 
and better-kept school yards. For consolidated schools four or five acres 
are none too much for a school yard, and the plan described is for a yard 
containing four acres. The purposes that this plan are to serve are, first, 
to provide picnic grounds in which the social side of school life may be 
developed. When the weather will permit, special programs may be given 
under the trees. It is very necessary in many communities that this 
grove be of sufficient size to accommodate neighborhood gatherings. The 
rural schools and the rural churches must be made the centers of rural 
social life and a public picnic ground is a necessity. Second, to provide 
protection to the schoolhouse and playgrounds. A vast majority of the 
country schools are located on about as bleak and barren a site as can be 
found within the district, and some protection during the severe winter 
weather is highly necessary. Third, to beautify the grounds. 

Assume that the school is located at the crossing of public highways 
and that the grounds are bounded on two sides by roads. The first point 
to consider is the planting along the roadsides. This is a simple matter 
of selecting a suitable species. The rules of landscape gardening pre- 
scribe that street and roadside trees must be of as nearly uniform size as 
possible and all of the same species. The white or American elm is the 
first choice for such planting, because of its hardiness and pleasing ap- 
pearance. Beginning at the corner of the grounds, set one of these trees 
every thirty-five or forty feet along either roadside, about eight feet 
inside the fence. The rest of the planting is divided into groups, desig- 
nated as groups 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. 

Group 1 begins at the road at the southwest corner of the grounds and 
continues nearly the entire length north and south. This group is to com- 
prise the picnic grounds, and the following species may be used in mixed 
planting: White elm, hackberry, green ash, sycamore, maple, walnut, 
oaks and hickories. The trees should be spaced approximately sixteen 
feet apart, so that they will have room to develop full crowns. This group 
should be kept trimmed and free of all undergrowth until the trees have 
fully established themselves, and then a sod of blue grass will be per- 
missible. 

Group 2 extends along the rear on the entire north side of the grounds. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 23 

The purpose of this group, in addition to beautifying the grounds, is that 
of a windbreak. With the proper arrangement of species this can be made 
a solid bank of foliage rising gradually from the lowest shrubs in the 
foreground to the top of the tallest trees in the background. There is an 
opportunity to use any tree desirable in this group ; in reality, it can be an 
arboretum in which the teacher may conduct studies in tree character- 
istics. The arrangement of the species should be about as follows : In the 
extreme background at irregular intervals plant some of the tall trees, 
like the cottonwood, Lombardy poplar and sycamore. Directly in front 
of these plant several species of the conifers. They do not grow as tall 
as the others, but inasmuch as they retain their foliage throughout the 
entire year they give density and variety of color of foliage. The Aus- 
trian, Scotch and white pines, the white spruce and Douglas fir are alto- 
gether hardy in this region, and in the extreme eastern part of the state 
the larch and arbor vitae grow successfully. Together with the conifers, 
and coming still farther into the foreground, many of our native small- 
sized trees can be used to a good advantage. Among these are the redbud, 
buckeye, red-barked dogwood and the sumac. The background of green 
afforded by the conifers makes a beautiful setting for the brilliant colors 
of the flowers and foliage of the last-named species. In the immediate 
foreground such flowering shrubs as the mock orange, lilacs, Forsythia, 
honeysuckle, barberry and spirea should be planted in profusion. A dense 
planting of this nature affords a wonderful protection from our winter 
winds and drifting snow. 

Group 3 is a little planting in the southeast corner of the grounds for 
the purpose of seclusion from full view of the roads. A few catalpa, 
basswood and Kentucky coffee trees underplanted with mock orange and 
spirea make a very tasty' group. 

Group 4 is to be placed in the rear of the school grounds, and species 
underplanted with shrubbery. 

Group 5 is also located in the rear, and is composed of seven conifers — 
tour Austrian pine in the center of the group, bordered by three Colorado 
blue spruce. 

These two groups are intended for snow traps, to catch and hold the 
snow that would otherwise pile up in front of the school and along the 
path. 

The success of the tree planting on the school grounds will require 
much hard work and earnest cooperation on the part of both the teacher 
and the patrons of the school. A spirit of enthusiasm for such work must 
be developed, and that usually by the teacher, before the work can be 
begun or carried on. The planting as outlined cannot be completed in a 
single season; in fact, it should continue through a number of seasons, so 
as to distribute the work and the necessary expense of the undertaking. 

On account of the limited space on school grounds of one acre or less 
the only tree planting that can be recommended is a row of trees along 
the roadside and two rows along the north and west sides of the grounds. 
The interior of the grounds must be kept free for playgrounds. The trees 
recommended in the above plan are altogether suitable for planting in 
similar locations on the smaller grounds. 



24 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



PLAYGROUNDS. 

By H. M. Culteh, State Normal School, Emporia. 

The pupils, with proper tools and a workbench, can make much of the 
playground apparatus out of waste material about the homes. The school 
board could not invest money better than in providing the raw material on 
condition that the pupils will construct the playground apparatus. The 
experience acquired in constructing it is in itself as valuable as any other 
school exercise. 

The movement for more ornamental school grounds needs the en- 
couragement of every teacher and superintendent, as well as the coopera- 
tion and activity of every school officer and patron. Trees with their cool- 
ing shade, shrubs with their green verdure, flowers with their beautiful 
colors and sweet-smelling odors, grass with its velvetlike softness to the 
parched feet of the barefoot boy, all are silent messengers of righteous- 
ness. Cicero in one of his orations speaks of placing before himself the 
portraits of great men, thinking that they would be silent monitors, re- 
minding him of their great achievements and admonishing him to greater 
deeds of uprightness. It was the Greeks' love of beauty that led them to 
such a high state of civilization, and enabled them to set such a high ideal 
in art that it is still the standard to-day. 




Teeters, swings and horizontal bar, on the grounds of the Model Rural School, near 

Emporia, Kan. 



But while we are speaking of the Greeks, we must not forget that their 
love of beauty was joined inseparably with their games and play. It was 
the beautiful body, the godlike form, attained through the influence of 
the Olympic games, that was the inspiration for many a poem and 
furnished the model for many a sculptor. These marble forms adorned 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



25 



their temples and imperfect copies still ornament our public libraries and 
studios of art. So we, in our desire to make beautiful the surroundings of 
our schoolhouses, must not forget that they are for boys and girls; and 
that, if boys and girls are to become the highest type of men and women, 
they must have an opportunity to play. We must not fill the ground with 
trees, however beautiful, but must leave room for play and games. 



E*2*\'^% 




A giant stride for school playgrounds. 



Some one says (not out loud, but thinks it and acts it), "Why play? 
It is all right to go out of doors for fresh air and exercise, but it would be 
better if this exercise were expended in a way which would be of some 
value rather than spend it in foolish play." While this is not the spoken 
creed of very many persons, it is the basis of action of a great many 
teachers. Play is the restorer of both body and mind. It gives freedom 
to both and relieves the restraints of uncomfortable positions in the 
schoolroom and gives the mind freedom from the necessary restraint of 
school regulations. Seldom does the child get tired playing, and often 
the seeming tired boy can play just as vigorously as if he had not worked 
at all. The refreshing of the mind restores the seeming worn-out muscles 
of the body; for often we are not tired, but just seem to be tired. 

"Then give us room to play, room for baseball, room for tennis, room 
for basket ball, room for any-way ball. Don't get your trees in our way; 
don't build your fences on the lines, unless you give plenty of play- 



26 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



ground; don't set the house in the middle of the playground, or we may 
throw our ball through the windows. We want room to play. If you 
haven't room for these games, you can at least put up some playground 
apparatus ; such as a swing or two, a slide, two or three teeters, a turning 
pole and a giant stride." 

The above is the unwritten and perhaps the unuttered cry of our 
school children. The healthy, normal child likes to play games, if con- 
ditions are favorable; but, if not, he will make good use of some play- 
ground apparatus such as is mentioned above. 

While every playground should have some playground apparatus, if it 
be nothing more than a swing, it is much more imperative that a small 
ground have a good supply of such material. Two teeters, two swings, a 
horizontal bar, a slide and a giant stride altogether do not take up much 
room, yet they utilize the room to great advantage; and with these things 
alone each one of twenty or thirty pupils may enjoy himself hugely and 
get healthful, vigorous exercise in a very short time. The above-men- 
tioned apparatus can be gotten for twenty-five dollars or less. 




A slide. My, what fun ! 



As a minimum equipment for the average playground, there should be 
a sand pile and blocks for the little children, one swing about ten or twelve 
feet high, one about fourteen or sixteen feet high, and a teeter. These 
can be erected for little or no expense and can be added to as opportunity 
offers. Two other pieces of apparatus which the children enjoy is the 
slide and giant stride. The slide will cost ten or fifteen dollars and the 
giant stride can be erected in many places for a dollar or two. The cost 
of the rope and pole is about all; the wheel can often be gotten for the 
asking at some blacksmith shop. For the giant stride, the pole must be 



School Buildings and Grounds. 27 

of the best material and the wheel not too large. The poles for all these 
should be set about four feet in the ground and embedded with good con- 
crete. The swing poles should be stayed with wires from the top to some 
object, as the house or a tree. By consulting the cuts one may see how this 
apparatus is made. 

Some other things that may be of service on the playground are baskets 
for basket ball, a tennis court, a vaulting pole and a crossbar, a rope for 
climbing, sets of horseshoes for quoits, a basket ball for dodge ball, a soft 
ball for any-way ball, balls and bats, etc. The apparatus which should be 
on any particular school ground depends largely upon local conditions as 
to room for playground, number, size and sex of pupils, and money at the 
command of the teacher for this purpose. However, the money is usually 
forthcoming to the teacher who is alive to the possibilities of the play- 
ground for good or evil. 

When such apparatus is installed on a playground, there should be 
captains selected whose duty it is to see that each pupil has his turn and 
fair play. These captains can often be the ones who themselves are in- 
clined to be the most troublesome on the playground. -This position often 
brings them to a realization of their responsibility and they make good 
captains and better people of themselves. 

The installing of playground apparatus brings added responsibility to 
the teacher. It now becomes almost imperative that he be on the play- 
ground at recesses and noons. He cannot, at least should not, delegate 
all the responsibility to the captains of the playground; the teacher must 
be in all and over all. His influence must pervade all the play, that it may 
be fair. If play is unfair, if cheating, domineering and trickery are 
dominant on the playgrounds of our schools, we may expect these same 
characteristics to become prominent in business, in politics, and in the 
everyday affairs of life. A square deal in politics means fair play on the 
school grounds. 

THE COLORADO IDEA CONCERNING PLAYGROUND 

EQUIPMENT. 

The equipment of a country or village school ground or house for the 
playing of healthful and attractive games is a much neglected matter. A 
few suggestions along that line may be of value. 

A turning pole for boys may be made by setting two posts in the 
ground, six or eight feet apart, and running a 1- or 1%-inch gas pipe 
through holes bored in the tops of the posts. The cost of such a piece of 
apparatus should be as follows, assuming that the necessary work will be 
done by the teachers and boys: Two posts, 4" x 4", 8 ft. long, 50 cents; 
one piece gas pipe, 8 ft. long, 15 cents. 

Teeter boards may be made by planting posts ten or twelve feet apart, 
and placing a pole or a rounded 6 x 6 on top of them, and then placing 
boards, upon which the children may teeter. Individual teeter boards may 
be made by placing a 2 x 8 board in the ground, and fastening the teeter 
board to it by means of iron braces placed on each side of the upright 
piece. The cost of the above apparatus would be, for several teeters: 
Two upright posts, 6" x 6", 5 ft. long, 93 cents ; one piece, 6" x 6", 12 ft. 
long, $1.22; four teeter boards, 2" x 8", 14 ft. long, $2.05. For individual 
teeter: One piece, 2" x 8", 16 ft. long, 56 cents— to make upright piece 4 
ft. long and teeter board 12 ft. long; two iron braces and four large 
screws, 25 cents. 

A very attractive and desirable piece of apparatus may be made as 
follows: Secure a pole about ten or fifteen feet long. To the small end 
attach by the use of bolts one end of a wagon axle, spindle up. Upon the 
spindle place a wagon wheel, and to the wheel attach ropes, about as 
long as the pole. Place the big end of the pole in the ground three or 
four feet, and brace it from the four points of the compass. The ropes 
will then hang down from the wheel in such a way that the children may 
take hold of them, swing, jump and run around the pole. The one de- 



28 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

scribed was rather inexpensive. A telephone company donated a discarded' 
pole, a farmer a discarded wagon wheel and axle. The only expense was 
that of paying a blacksmith for attaching the wheel to the pole and the 
cost of the ropes — about $2. It furnished one of the most attractive pieces 
of apparatus on the playground. , 

An inexpensive swing may be constructed by placing four 4 x 4's in 
the ground in a slanting position, two being opposite each other and 
meeting at the top in such a way as to form a fork. The pairs may be 
ten or twelve feet apart, and a pole or heavy galvanized pipe, to which 
swings may be attached, wired, nailed or bolted to the crotches formed by 
the pieces placed in the ground. The cost of this apparatus will be: 
Four pieces, 4" x 4", 14 ft. long, $1.25 ; one piece galvanized pipe, 3", 12 ft. 
long, $2.50. 

Boards of education could well afford to purchase one or more basket 
balls, and a few baseballs and bats for the boys. These things more than 
pay for themselves in the added interest which boys and girls who have 
them take in their school work. For much of the apparatus suggested 
above the wide-awake board of education and teacher will see opportuni- 
ties to use material less expensive than that suggested. And to such 
persons many pieces of apparatus not mentioned here will suggest them- 
selves to fit particular needs and opportunities. 



"Given a good teacher, a schoolroom constructed, heated and ventilated 
according to approved methods, and a healthy public sentiment in a rural 
school district, and the best city school cannot furnish more wholesome 
and stimulating environment for the education of the children of our 
cities, than our rural schools favored by such conditions do for the chil- 
dren in country districts." 

"The schoolroom could and should be made to serve the same purpose 
in training the mind to a perception of beauty in domestic arrangements 
that the personal example of the teacher should exercise in the matter of 
dress." 

"Children as well as older people are affected by their environments, 
and nowhere is this more clearly shown than in the schoolroom. The 
silent beauty radiating from the harmoniously tinted walls and ceilings, 
from beautiful decorations consisting of pictures, casts and plants, 
quickens and purifies the taste. Such beauty of surroundings has a subtle, 
silent, ethical influence which is not so much seen as felt." 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



29 




A PIONEER SOD SCHOOLHOUSE. 

This type of schoolhouse is now practically extinct in Kansas, although ten years ago 
it was not uncommon in some of the western portions of the state. 




A typical rural school building. 



30 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




-PLAn-/'0HDinMY-HUMb5Crt oo l- BUlLDlilG- 3CALL W* 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



31 



TLACrtt»3-Dt3K- 



3 

3 

9 








3 


£ 




PS! 

_U 
«-> 

-0 






3 




•A°DtlU EUttAL- DCf^L-MLDIAQ- 
•5H°Wlf\( i »0EDir\A2V£UE/\L-5Cn oo b 
•£Lr\°DtLt> 3CALt^M-°" 



A plan of remodeling the ordinary type of school building by erecting an 
addition to the end. 



32 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




-Z\°0CL-2(JI?AL-5C/1 oo L^UOl/l(;O/i o yLaQ 
-02DIAACY- OTAb5Crt 00 L'OT°DtLtD- 



A model floor plan for a rural school building. It also represents the remodeling 
of the ordinary school building. This plan is recommended above all others. Be 
sure first of all that the interior is modern in every respect. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



33 




MODEL RURAL SCHOOL BUILDING. 

This represents our standard model rural school. It also represents 
an ordinary school building remodeled. The public is especially cau- 
tioned not to permit the old-time interior arrangements in any new 
school building. A model exterior like the one above is a mere pre- 
tense if the interior arrangements are primitive. 




Rear view of the same building. Attention is called to the high 
basement, the lighting of it, and to the banking of the windows of the 
school room, which insures perfect lighting. 



-3 



34 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



THE MODEL RURAL SCHOOL BUILDING. 

By J. EL Pelt, Architect. 

The plan as laid out contemplates either an entirely new building, or 
the ordinary rectangular plan rural school building remodeled, and is de- 
signed to embody all of the latest ideas pertaining to lighting, heating and 
ventilating. 

The system of lighting is what is known as the unilateral or one-side 
lighting, by which the light is brought from a number of windows located 
to the left of the pupil, and set as close to the ceiling as practicable. The 
high windows shown at the rear are not essential, as the proper amount 
of glass surface is contained in the bank of windows to the left. 

The heating and ventilating is accomplished in the same manner as in 
the most modern gravity heating plants in larger buildings — that is, the 
air is brought in from the outside well above the grade line. In this 
case it is brought through the lower window in the front gable, drops 
down the air shaft back of the heater, and ascends between the jacket and 
the heater. By means of a series of baffle plates the air is passed over the 
heating surface but never coming in contact with the fire, passes out above 
the heater and exhausts into the room, as indicated by the darts, directly 
toward and against the cooling surface, which is the windows on the left 
of the room. The upper part of the receptacle which receives this heater 
curves outward at the top so as to deflect the warm air into the room. 
As the air leaves the heater, being pure and warm it rises to the ceiling 
and would remain there were it not for the large ventilating flue and 
vent register at the bottom, which takes off the lower strata of air, allow- 
ing the pure warm air to fall equally all over the room. This entirely 
eliminates all currents and drafts and holds the temperature of the room 
the same in all parts. To absolutely insure an ascending current of air 
in the vent flue at all times there is an iron plate set vertically between 
the heat and vent flue just opposite where the smoke pipe enters. The heat 
from the smoke pipe heats this iron plate, which in turn heats the air in 
the vent flue, causing an upward current which pulls the air out of the 
schoolroom as above mentioned. 

The apparatus as described and laid out is practically fireproof, and 
much safer than stoves, as there is a double jacket between the fire and 
the woodwork at any point, and between these jackets is constantly pass- 
ing a current of air. It would be next to impossible to build a fire intense 
enough to set the building on fire. While this plant includes all the de- 
sirable features of the more elaborate and more expensive plants used in 
larger buildings, it has the distinct advantage of not being a patented 
article and can be installed without the payment of any royalties what- 
ever, at the same time being practical and economical. 

The fuel room is sufficiently large to hold fuel for at least a week, it 
being assumed that the janitor or person in charge can fill the same at 
the end of the week and do away with the dust and dirt caused by bring- 
ing in fuel from the outside many times during the day. 

The workroom is large and well lighted and heated directly from the 
school heater, and is separated from the main schoolroom by a rolling 
partition or sliding door, permitting the same to be thrown into the main 
schoolroom when desired. 

The closet adjacent is designed for the use of the teacher. 

This building as designed can be built of either frame or masonry, and 
if of frame the only masonry required would be the foundation walls and 
smoke and vent flues. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 35 



THE MODEL SCHOOL BUILDING. 

Children are much influenced by their school surroundings. Decent 
schoolrooms and outbuildings are conducive to decent habits, and beauty 
of environment begets beauty of life. The transition is now being made 
from the "box style" of school architecture to the style that is sanitary, 
useful and attractive. 

The interior arrangement that keeps in view the pupil and classroom 
requirements is far more important than the exterior appearance. Hence 
school buildings should be planned from "within out" and not from 
"without in." 

The modern type of rural school, in which agriculture, domestic econ- 
omy and manual training are taught, requires a new type of school build- 
ing. A number of attempts have been made to construct school buildings 
adapted to the modern notion of a rural school. The new features in 
general include an improved system of lighting, heating and ventilation, 
a cloakroom, a workroom, shelves for books built into the wall, a reading 
table, a storage closet, and a small teacher's closet. Some of the plans are 
more complete and include a modern dry closet or water closet system and 
hot and cold water. At the model rural school at the State Normal 
School at Kirksville, Mo., a shower bath is provided and special equip- 
ment is supplied for projection apparatus. 

In making floor plans the usefulness of the space and the proper light- 
ing are to be kept chiefly in view. A modern school building is usually 
not so much a matter of cost as of selecting good plans. 

The classroom is the unit upon which the planning of the school build- 
ing depends. The size of the modern school building will depend upon 
the number of pupils to be accommodated. If the classrooms are built 
smaller than the standard sizes suggested, they will sooner or later be 
overcrowded. Due regard should be had for the fact that in the near 
future no teacher will be expected to have more than forty or forty-five 
pupils. Experience has developed the following standards for classrooms, 
which best assure the physical and mental welfare of the school children : 
22 x 32 feet outside dimensions for the accommodation of forty pupils at 
single desks, and 24 x 30 or 32 feet for forty-eight pupils, the ceilings of 
the rooms to be 13 or 14 feet high. There is good authority for rooms 
25 x 30 or 26 x 31 feet. The length will not in any case exceed 32 feet 
and the width 26 feet. The square type of exterior for school buildings 
offers the most floor space for the material used. When the width is 
24 feet the ceiling should be at least 12 feet high. With an improved 
system of heating and ventilation the ceiling may be lower than where the 
heating and ventilation are attempted by means of an un jacketed stove 
and windows. 

Some of the model school buildings provide for a corner entrance and 
others for a front entrance. The tendency is for two cloakrooms to be 
provided, one for the boys and one for the girls. In attempting to secure 
additional room for other purposes it would seem best for economical 
purposes to reduce the number of cloakrooms to but one. 



36 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




-. 




JJi.r ei_-t Arch it-eot, 

KAMSA5C(TV. 



ANOTHER TYPE OF MODEL RURAL SCHOOL. 

The front windows are not classroom windows. Those windows are massed 
together on the rear. 




Another view of the same building, showing the windows banked on one side. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 37 

Dr. Thomas D. Wood says: "The country school should be, in the 
fundamental elements of architecture and sanitation, as good a building as 
there is in the community. As the cathedral, town hall, public library or 
capitol building represents the civic pride of a municipality, so the rural 
schoolhouse should represent the pride of the rural community. It should 
be a model of architectural adaptation to use and of sanitary excellence. 
It should, if possible, be a building a little better than any other building 
in the community, because here you have the young brought together and 
subject to influences either harmful or beneficial. The problem here is 
the care of the growing child. This building for the training of the young 
may be made in any community, by intelligent planning and without un- 
reasonable expense, a structure of genuine beauty and of continual joy 
and comfort." 

WORKROOM, STOREROOM, TEACHER'S CLOSET, AND FUEL ROOM. 

"We need in our common schools not merely education in book learning but also 
practical training for daily life and work." — Theodore Roosevelt. 

A workroom about 9 x 12 feet is one of the best features of the model 
school building. The workroom should be provided with a workbench 
and the common tools used by carpenters. Until tools can be purchased 
they usually can be borrowed from the homes of the pupils. 

There should be a small storeroom adjacent to the workroom to store 
away supplementary reading, general school supplies and apparatus, 
and workroom equipment. 

The workroom may also be used for domestic science as well as manual 
training, and to that end it should be equipped with a view to easy and 
convenient transformation from one use to the other. Folding tables, 
table tops supported on movable standards or supports, or hinged wall 
tables, can be used to transform the manual training room into a domestic 
science room. The storeroom and additional shelving will provide places 
for storing away one class of equipment while the other is in use. This 
room may also be used as a sewing room. It is just what is needed for 
performing experiments in agriculture. The modern school has so many 
uses for such a room that it should be a part of every new rural school 
building and of every remodeled school building in the state. 

A part of the domestic science equipment will be one or more denatured- 
alcohol stoves — where gas is not available — for use by the pupils in pre- 
paring warm food for the midday meal. 

A movable partition or folding doors should separate the workroom 
from the classroom. During the quiet work the teacher can oversee the 
work of both rooms at the same time, and extra seating can be provided 
for entertainments and other special occasions. 

With but little additional expense a well-lighted basement may be pro- 
vided for play in inclement weather. With proper construction it could 
also be used as the workroom and serve as a substitute for a separate 
workroom. For graded schools the workshop for boys and the model 
kitchen for girls will occupy separate rooms in the basement. 

A well-arranged school building will always provide a closet for the 
exclusive use of the teacher. The uses for such a closet are various, such 
as a private cloakroom, a private library, and storage for examination 
papers and other written or constructed school work. 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




School Buildings and Grounds. 



39 




40 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




Manual training exercises, Topeka schools. 




A class In drawing, Topeka high school. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



41 




42 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

The fuel room is best located at the rear of the school building or in a 
very tightly enclosed portion of the basement. It would be most con- 
venient, it is true, if it could be located near the stove as a separate por- 
tion of the school building. But as the coal dust would almost certainly 
penetrate into the adjacent rooms that plan is not advisable. 

USEFULNESS OF THE WORKROOM. 

In this article Ex-State Superintendent Stetson, of Maine, makes some good 
recommendations as to the equipment and use of the workroom. 

In every rural schoolhouse there should be a room about nine feet wide 
and twelve feet long, in which should be placed a small workbench and a 
few common tools used by carpenters. There should also be a limited 
supply of lumber suitable for making the implements, utensils and appa- 
ratus needed in the home, on the farm and in the school. 

The room should also be provided with a small cookstove, a few of the 
utensils used in the ordinary kitchen, a sewing table, and such other appa- 
ratus as is needed in making the plainer articles of wearing apparel. 

This room should be furnished by the people of the community in which 
the school is located. 

The teacher should encourage the children to make use of this work- 
room in constructing the material needed in the school and the home, and 
in preparing simple articles of food and in making some of the garments 
worn by the school children. 

It will be much better if the teacher does not attempt to be severely 
scientific or technical. Most of the teachers do not and many of them 
cannot act as expert instructors in this work, but they may give general 
directions and, to an extent, oversee what is done. There will always be 
members of the school who will have an aptitude for the things in which 
the teacher has no special skill. 

Let it be distinctly understood from the start, that the teacher is not an 
instructor in manual training and does not pretend to be; but that she 
and the children, working together, can provide many necessary articles. 

Many blunders will be made and some material will be wasted, but 
neither of these items should be discouraging. Perhaps there is no better 
way of learning how to do a thing than by the mistakes one makes in 
doing it. The knowledge and skill thus acquired develop taste, judgment, 
ability to meet emergencies, and at the same time stimulate originality 
and invention. Best of all, these activities furnish an opportunity for the 
children to train their hands while they are using their heads. They also 
develop self-reliance, independence, and love of manual labor and a desire 
to be physically useful in the world. 

A room provided with the material described above and used by intelli- 
gent teachers and ambitious pupils will help to give us a student body 
that will be industrious, enterprising, skillful, self-supporting. It will 
help solve not a few industrial problems and will furnish a satisfactory 
answer to many troublesome moral and intellectual questions. It will 
help to keep the boys and girls in school and aid them in becoming in- 
telligent and worthy citizens when they leave school. 

There is a great opportunity for usefulness in this work, and it is sin- 
cerely hoped that parents, school officials and teachers will appreciate the 
situation and make use of the advantages which such training will surely 
give. 

THE LIBRARY. 

Book shelves should be built with the building, and should be provided 
with glass doors that can be locked. 

In a one-room building the library room should not be a separate room 
from the main schoolroom, although in some model school, buildings the 
library is placed in a separate room. There are advantages in making 
the classroom itself the library room. The library and reading table 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



43 



placed in a well-lighted corner of the classroom, under the supervision of 
the teacher, will be most convenient for the pupils and will be used more. 
The reference books especially should be kept out of locked cases and easily- 
accessible to the pupils at all times. 

For larger schools with a large library a separate apartment becomes 
necessary. 

LIGHTING. 

Windows. — The common arrangement of windows on both sides of the 
school room is universally condemned as being injurious to the eyes. It 
usually requires pupils to look at blackboards with a glare of light from an 
adjacent window shining into their eyes. 




Learning physics in the laboratory, Topeka high school. 



Data from schools with windows arranged according to standard re- 
quirements indicate that insufficiency of light and improper arrangement 
of light, and not the amount of use of the eyes, are mainly responsible 
for the defective eyesight among school children. Since there is no ad- 
ditional expense in arranging windows properly when new buildings are 
erected there should be no excuse for the erection of school buildings that 
are improperly lighted. 

In planning the lighting of school buildings the south side is not desira- 
ble as a source of light, on account of the large amount of direct sun- 
light. The north side is most desirable for the banking of windows. The 
east side has the advantage of affording the sanitary effect of the sunshine 
in the morning, when it is most welcome. A west exposure for the win- 
dows is less desirable in this respect. 

The model school building requires quite a different arrangement of 
windows from that found in the old-fashioned schoolhouse. The authori- 



44 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

ties agree that the windows should be banked or massed on one side and 
the seats so arranged as to let the light fall over the left shoulder of the 
pupil. One or two smaller windows may be placed in the rear for summer 
ventilation and for additional light on dark days. They will also improve 
the exterior appearance.. They should be located high enough to leave 
blackboard space beneath, where rear space must be used for blackboards. 
Except on dark days these windows should be covered with shades, which 
should be light-colored and translucent. This will protect the teacher's 
eyes, make the rear blackboards usable where they become necessary, and 
eliminate cross shadows. 



,-•->.?.■• 












L-; 


■jF""* 






/--f..>, : ':Zj •:~^?£ 


'•^PPH* -■-.:-- 






s-*r** i ■"-,• ■•■ ■•■:■'■'." '■■ ■ ' 






..,.,>' ■ ' ' ; V .' , 



A chemical laboratory, Topeka high school. 

The other windows should begin about three and one-half feet from the 
floor and extend to within six inches of the ceiling, or so that the window 
casing will extend entirely to the ceiling. The windows should not be 
arched. It is better in massing windows for them to be nearer the rear 
then the front side of the room. 

The windows should be plain and should not have more than one glass 
in the lower sash, and small-sized glass is objectionable for the upper 
sash. The shadows thrown by piers are injurious to the eyesight. Hence, 
windows should be massed closely together and separated only by narrow 
mullions. 

The use of prism glass in the upper sash nearly doubles the light froii 
that part of the window and is especially desirable where the windows 
must be located on a short side of the room or where large window space 
is lacking. 

A good rough test of the sufficiency of light in a room is the ability to 
read brevier type at the darkest desk on the darkest day as rapidly as 
when in good open light. This paragraph is printed in brevier type. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



45 



The authorities agree that there should not be less than one square foot 
of window surface for each four or five square feet of floor surface. 
Where the rooms are wider than 24 feet the window space should be one- 
fourth of the floor space unless prism glass is used for the upper sash. 

Window Shades. — The common way of fastening shades at the top of 
the window makes it impossible to exclude the lower light and retain the 
top light. It also interferes with ventilation by means of the top sash. 
If but one window shade is used it is preferable that it be attached to the 
bottom sash so that the shade may be raised upward, to preserve the top 
light as far as possible. 




ELLSWORTH PUBLIC SCHOOL. 

This is the first building erected in the state with windows banked on but one 
side of the rooms. It is now universally conceded that the windows should be set 
In straight lines, and not in curved lines as shown. 



For north windows the shades should be fastened only at the bottom 
and run upward by a cord run over a spool or pulley at the top. This 
plan has the advantage of cutting off the light at the bottom and ad- 
mitting it from the top. The top light is the best light, and should be the 
last light to be shut out except direct sunlight. The top light shines 
more directly on the work on the desks and less into the faces of the pupils. 
Where the sunlight is to be shut out the shades should be somewhat 
translucent. 

A plan that has given excellent results is that of using an additional 
translucent sun shade which cuts off the direct rays of the sun but at 
the same time admits the required amount of light. 

On a side exposed to the direct rays of the sun an additional blind 
fastened to the top of the upper sash will exclude the direct sunshine 
from the pupils, while admitting light from below. 



46 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



Another plan of using two shades is to attach each of them at the 
middle of the window casing and raise the upper shade by means of a 
cord and pulley. 

An excellent method of adjusting shades to all conditions is illustrated 
in the accompanying cut. 

The shade is suspended by cords passing over movable pulleys. It can 
be adjusted to any desired height, and is held in place by lateral guides. 
By this class of shades either the top or bottom of the window can be 
shaded without shading the remaining portion, and ventilation by means 
of the top or bottom sash will not.be interfered with. 




HUTCHINSON GRAMMAR SCHOOL. 
Light is admitted to the rooms from but one side. This is the correct method. 



HEATING AND VENTILATION. 

Air that has once been breathed is deprived of a large part of its 
oxygen and is charged with organic poisons and frequently with germs 
of diseases. Physicians are now agreed that the breathing of impure 
air is the principal cause of bronchial and lung diseases, while fresh air 
is recognized as a preventive of tuberculosis. Children should not be 
deprived of the invigorating stimulus of pure air, which is required for 
the building up of healthy bodies and sound minds. 

The object of ventilation is to furnish all the pupils in the room an 
abundance of fresh air and to prevent the accumulation of carbonic acid, 
organic matter and disease germs. Without any adequate system of ven- 
tilation, air starvation, which is more insidious and dangerous than food 
starvation, is enforced upon the children. 

A schoolroom heated by an ordinary stove is never uniformly heated. 
The air is heated over and over again, and there is no means of keeping 
the pure air from the impure air; both are withdrawn together from the 
room. There is also no method by which the cold air may be warmed 
before it reaches the children. Consequently, it reaches the children be- 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



11 




fore it reaches the stove and they become too 
cold. On the other hand, the children near the 
stove become overheated and uncomfortable, and 
as a result their bodies and minds are not in a 
condition conducive to study. Dullness and list- 
lessness resulting in disorder are common conse- 
quences. In their sweaty and overheated con- 
dition the pupils are rendered more liable to 
catch cold when they leave the room. Those 
farther from the stove are exposed to cold air 
draughts that endanger both strong and frail. 
Hence the modern school building also requires 
a modern system of heating and as a remedy 
furnaces in some cases have been installed in 
the basement of rural schol buildings. This plan 
is an improvement over the unjacketed stove, 
but has proved to be inconvenient and requires 
more care and skill than can ordinarily be as- 
sured. Such a furnace is difficult to repair, re- 
quires more fuel and, in short, is suited to larger 
buildings than those erected for rural schools. 
It is best adapted to buildings of five classrooms 
or more, where a janitor can be regularly employed to look after it. 
Hence an improved heating system for the rural schools should be 
installed in the schoolroom. There are several such systems on the mar- 
ket specially adapted to this purpose. In general terms these systems are 
designed to heat the room by indirect heat. The cool air is secured 
through a fresh-air intake admitting outside air near the eaves, where it 
is purest, and conducting it directly to the stove, where it is heated and 
rises, while the impure air is withdrawn from the room at the floor by 
means of a ventilating flue or a foul-air pipe connected with the chimney. 
The heat from the stovepipe creates a draft that causes the withdrawal 
of the foul air. These systems are scientific and more easily operated 
than a furnace located in the basement. They keep the temperature quite 





The air movement in a good system of heating and ventilation. 



48 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



uniform throughout the room — a condition that cannot be credited to the 
common un jacketed stove. 

If an improved system of heating cannot be provided, the stove should 
be provided with a jacket, and a ventilating flue should be constructed as 
described under "Repairing and Remodeling Old Buildings." It will in 
the end be paid for in the fuel saved, not to consider the saving in doctors' 
bills. It is hoped that no new school building will be erected in the state 
that does not provide a modern system of heating and ventilation. 




A GOOD PLAN OF HEATING AND VENTILATING. 

The register should be at least 24 x 24 inches and the foul-air 
shaft proportionately large. 



The standard for schoolroom ventilation is 30 cubic feet of air per 
minute per pupil, or 1800 cubic feet per hour per pupil. 

In the improved system doors and windows are not used as a means of 
ventilation. The plan under the old system of ventilating by which a 
board is placed under the lower sash where window ventilation must be 
used, is not effective, as it provides an exit but no entrance for fresh air. 
Ventilation in this case should be secured by raising the lower sashes of 
a number of windows. No sash should be high enough to produce a 
draught. Excepting for summer ventilation the top sash should not be 
lowered, as the top air is somewhat purer than the lower air, and it is 
poor economy to heat air and send it immediately out of the room before 
it has been used for heating purposes. 






School Buildings and Grounds. 



49 




A vertical section of an Improved heating system. The cold-air Intake Is shown on 
the left and the foul-air ventilating tube on the right. 



-4 



50 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




A modern system of heating and ventilating. 



SEATING. 

Only seats of the same size should be placed in the same row. The 
custom of placing the smaller seats in the front and the larger ones in 
the rear places high seats behind low desks, and such seats are a positive 
injury to the pupil. 

The aisles should be as wide as the conditions will admit. Those at 
the side and rear should be not less than thirty inches wide and those next 
to the blackboard should be from three and one-half to four feet wide, and 
the space in front should be at least five to six feet. Aisles between the 
seats should be at least twenty inches wide. Where the system of heat- 
ing and ventilation is of the improved type the admission of light will be 
best with the smallest pupils on the side nearest the windows. But in the 
unsanitary schoolroom as ordinarily heated and ventilated it is not best 
for the smallest pupils to occupy the seats in the coldest place near the 
draught from the windows. 

Single seats should be used. They make discipline easier, foster self- 
reliance, insure better application to study and offer less danger from 
infectious diseases. 

Pupils in all cases should be seated so that their feet will rest on the 
floor. In ordering seats much care should be taken to adapt the seats to 
the various sizes of pupils. At least part of the seats of each size should 
be adjustable, so that they may be adapted to the variation in the number 
of pupils of the various sizes. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 51 

There is a demand for a convenient, simple, durable, sanitary school 
desk that interferes but little with sweeping; that reduces to a minimum 
the space that retains dust, and that completely encloses the pupil's books 
so as to protect them from dust. 

The sizes of desks range from No. 6, the smallest, to No. 1, the largest. 
There should be seats of all sizes excepting No. 1. 

In placing desks, Nos. 5 and 6 should be placed so that the distance 
from the edge of the top of the desk to the back of the seat behind it 
shall be about nine inches. For desk No. 4 this distance should be ten 
inches, No. 3 eleven inches, and No. 2 twelve inches. 

In no case should the seats face a wall in which there are windows. 
Elsewhere it is pointed out that they should be arranged so that the light 
enters only from the left side of the pupils. 

BLACKBOARDS. 

The schoolroom cannot have too much good blackboard space. Black- 
boards should never be placed between windows or closely adjoining them. 
The appropriate place is on the sides having no windows. The front and 
right sides are the best locations for them. 

Natural slate is the best material, chiefly because it is always in repair. 
While it is more expensive at the start, that is compensated for by its 
being practically indestructible. 

Blackboards with a shiny surface are entirely unsatisfactory. The 
average attempt to secure a cheap substitute for a substantial blackboard 
is a failure, either because of the poor choice made or because of its not 
being kept in repair. Such blackboards are usually out of repair in two 
to four years. 

For primary pupils the chalk trough should be only twenty-four to 
twenty-eight inches from the floor. For large pupils it should be about 
three feet from the floor. The blackboard should extend as high as the 
average large pupil can conveniently reach, or six and one-half feet. It 
is not uncommon for blackboards to be placed too high for the smaller 
children. 

The chalk trough beneath the blackboard should be constructed for 
convenience in removing dust and should have a substantial, hinged, open- 
wire cover to keep the crayon and erasers separated from the crayon 
dust, and for convenience in removing the chalk dust. 

DOORS. 

The doors should be provided with locks that do not at any time inter- 
fere with opening them from the inside, and they should swing outward. 
All inside doors should have rubber stop buttons so set into the woodwork 
as to prevent noise. 

WALLS. 

The walls should be tinted buff, light gray or a light olive green. 

"In making a selection, authorities should bear in mind the general 
rule that cool colors should be used in rooms with south and west light, 
and warm ones in rooms with windows north and east. Greens, olives, 
grays, etc., rank as cool colors; reds, terra cottas, tans and yellows as 
warm colors. Corridors and offices may properly be treated with stronger 
and more brilliant color than schoolrooms. 



52 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




FRONT VIEW, MODEL RURAL SCHOOL AT WESTERN STATE NORMAL, HATS. 

This model school building is the first of its type to be erected in the state, and 
represents a long step in advance of the ordinary type of school building. 



"The height of room and amount of light received must regulate the 
depth to which the ceiling is carried down on the side walls." 

The window blinds should as nearly as possible have the same color as 
the walls. The ceiling should be nearly white. The walls should be left 
very slightly rough to scatter the reflection of light, but they should not 
be so rough as to hold dust. 

For the usual wooden wainscoting and baseboard a cement wains- 
coting and base should be substituted. They should be painted, and the 
color should be darker than that of the wall above. This plan has the 
advantage of furnishing fewer lodging places for dust and disease germs. 

A strip of cork mat about twelve inches wide placed above the black- 
board is an improvement over a picture railing at that place. It holds 
less dust, and by using thumb tacks pictures and all kinds of display 
work can be easily affixed. 

Instead of the usual picture molding, a harbinger of dust, metallic 
picture molding is concealed beneath the plastering in new buildings, and 
only a very narrow opening to receive picture hooks is exposed. 

THE ROOF. 

Flat roofs for two-story buildings are less expensive, more durable, 
and there are no exposed surfaces to catch the wind. The bell, if needed, 
may be located near the center of the roof on a suitable frame where it 
will be invisible from the ground. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



53 




Side view, model rural school at Western State Normal, Hays. 



THE MODEL DISTRICT SCHOOL, HAYS, KAN. 

By Prin. W. S. Picken. 

The focus of present educational interest is the district school; at all 
educational gatherings its problems are prominent. Educational officials, 
university professors and normal school authorities are devising means 
for its betterment. Many theories have been advanced and the results 
of much investigation are recorded, but the object lesson gives most vivid 
proof of realized needs. In the State Normal School at Hays, Kan., 
these problems are being worked out in definite form. 

Three years ago a model district school was established here, and its 
success has proved the value of the experiment. Until this year it was 
sustained in the old Fort Hays hospital building, but in September it will 
be housed in a new model school building which embodies unusual 
conveniences. . 

It contains a main schoolroom, an annex for the teaching of manual 
training and domestic science, two cloakrooms, two closets, and two 
toilet rooms which are connected with a septic tank. 

Here will be taught, in addition to the common branches, elementary 
agriculture, some elements of the manual arts, and the beginnings of 
household science; tools, a workbench and a cooking stove with its equip- 
ment will be installed in the annex. Cooking and sewing will be taught 
to the girls and manual training to the boys. - 

Improvements are planned for the school grounds; a plot of about 
four acres is set apart for tree planting, school garden and model play- 
grounds. Swings, merry-go-round, turning poles and other apparatus 
will be added, combining healthful exercise with jolly games. The pupils 
plant and cultivate the school garden, study botany and learn agriculture 
at first hand. , , , , , . 

A teacher of fine ability and training is here employed to conduct a 
model district school on modern lines, while all teachers attending the 



54 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




Floor plan, model rural school at Western State Normal, Hays. 



Normal School are required to observe and take notes upon the work. 
Periodically these teacher students meet the teacher of the model school 
for a conference upon methods, equipment and management, and they see 
a district school conducted under the best conditions. Teachers from 
many counties visit this school to observe its equipment and methods and 
confer with its teacher. 

The contract price of the building, exclusive of the toilets and septic 
tank, was $1765. Many Kansas districts are financially able to duplicate 
these conveniences, and there is a growing sentiment that the best in 
educational facilities is none too good for the sons and daughters of 
Kansas farmers. 

The accompanying cuts show the floor plan, the dimensions and 
views of the building. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



55 




FIRST FLOOR PLA?J 




COLD AIR DUCT- 
WATEP TANK 
400.GAL 





SWITCH BOARD \^ 
GASOLINE. ENGINE 

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BASEMENT PLAN EA5T si -- 

Plan of the model school at the State Normal 
School at Kirksville, Mo, 






56 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




A front view of the same model school building. 




A rear view of the same buildins 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



57 




This plan is better than the average. It could he easily remodeled by 
condensing the coatrooms and hall into one combined hall and coatroom 
and enlarging the library into a workroom. The rear windows should be 
above the top line of the blackboards. 



58 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




A plan showing a system of sanitary plumbing. 




The old-style box schoolhouse. It is but a shell, with windows at regular intervals 

around it. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



59 





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Floor plan of the same building. The light enters from both 
sides. The old-fashioned stove is there to roast those near it 
and let those by the windows shiver. There is no system of ven- 
tilation. 



60 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




Floor plan of either a model or remodeled school building for one 
teacher. It is both sanitary and useful. It provides a workroom easily 
made a part of the main room for an assembly room. The cloakroom, 
teacher's closet and storeroom are all very useful. The lighting, heating 
and ventilation are in accordance with approved standards. The rear 
windows above the top line of the blackboards are for use only on dark 
days and for summer ventilation. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



61 




The front view of a plain, economical building, well adapted to the above 
floor plan for the model or remodeled school building. Cottage windows add to 
the exterior appearance, but these plain windows catch less dust and are better 
for the eyesight. 



62 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




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A rear view of the same building, showing the windows banked on the left of the pupils. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



63 



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The same plan with the porch differently arranged. This is also an ideal plan for a 
new building. It combines convenience, usefulness, comfort and sanitation. 



64 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



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Another plan of remodeling is that of building 
an addition to the end of the old building. Where 
the old building is very long the same rearrange- 
ment may be made by a partition across the end. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 65 



REPAIRING AND REMODELING OLD BUILDINGS. 

The schoolroom should not only be kept in repair but should be made 
attractive and homelike in appearance. If it has the appearance of a 
dingy prison there should be no surprise if it is the object of attack by 
pencil, crayon, mud balls, knives, and even stones. If the pupils are to 
take good care of it and respect it, it must be made worthy of their care 
and respect. 

Painting or calcimining the walls and revarnishing or repainting the 
woodwork, including desks, will eliminate dinginess and untidiness. Both 
walls and woodwork should be kept bright and clean and the room as a 
whole should be made cosy, cheerful and attractive. The walls should 
never be papered, as it is highly unsanitary. 

The price of building material has become so high that it is more 
economical in many cases to remodel old school -buildings than to erect 
new ones. In Kansas remodeling is needed much more than rebuilding. 
The old-style box schoolhouse is so simple in plan that it yields readily 
to remodeling. Districts having the primitive type of one-room school- 
house could at moderate expense transform it into a building far better 
adapted to the health and convenience of pupils. 

For very large buildings a cloakroom, workroom, teacher's closet and 
storeroom may be partitioned off as shown in one of the plans for re- 
modeling school buildings. If the building is not large an addition can be 
erected on one side for a cloakroom, workroom, teacher's closet and store- 
room as shown in another plan for remodeling. For more complete 
remodeling a modern water-closet system and septic tank may also be 
installed as is shown in the plans for the model rural school building at 
the Western Normal School at Hays. 

The changes most needed are those of heating and lighting. The 
arrangement of windows should be changed by removing the windows 
from the right side, adding them to those already on the left side of the 
pupils and closing up the spaces on the right. One or two windows at 
most may be placed high in the rear of the room. 

While a new heating system of the improved style is desirable, that 
need not retard the improvement of the existing heating system, where a 
new system cannot be immediately installed. Where a better system 
cannot be provided, the stoves should be jacketed and a ventilating flue 
constructed similar to the system described under "Heating and Ventila- 
tion." The jacketed stove should be located in one corner of the room. 
Cold air should be supplied to the stove through a fresh-air intake. A 
ventilating pipe should extend from the floor to the chimney, or a new 
ventilating flue may be constructed. The stove should be sufficiently 
large so that it will never become necessary to heat it red hot. 

Large stoves give out more heat because of their larger radiating sur- 
face, give more uniform heat and require less attention. 

The jacket should be about six feet high and about eight inches from 
-5 



66 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




A heating and ventilating system similar to this can be placed in old school 
buildings as well as in new ones. The fresh-air intake behind the stove is not 
shown. 



the stove, and should contain a large door for convenience in supplying 
fuel and sweeping the floor. This system has been shown to provide an 
even and comfortable temperature to the room. 

Directions for jacketing stoves and providing an improved system of 
ventilation are as follows: 

"The stove should be surrounded by a sheet or plate of some kind, set 
a few inches from the stove, so that the air between the stove and the 
jacket may be heated to make it rise and circulate through the room 
instead of scorching the faces of the youngsters who sit nearest. 

"This jacket may be a wooden frame covered with sheets of asbestos; 
it may be of tin or galvanized iron. It may be put around any stove, no 
matter what its size or shape, and may be done by a tinner, a carpenter, 
a blacksmith or any ordinary handy man. It is very greatly improved 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



67 



when a hole is cut through the wall near the stove, so as to draw in 
fresh air from out of doors to pass up between the stove and the jacket. 
This hole should be large, and should be controlled by a slide or register 
of some kind. 

"When connected with the outdoor air in this way, the jacketed stove 
is a ventilating as well as a heating device, bringing in fresh air, warm- 
ing it, and distributing it through the room. It should be balanced by 
providing a large outlet for foul air, at the floor level and near the 
stove. This foul-air outlet may be a small fireplace, or a large pipe 
going into the chimney and up the chimney; thus it is surrounded and 
heated by the smoke from the stove, which produces an upward suction 
in the pipe, drawing off bad air from the room below. 

"A number of patented devices also are manufactured for schools, using 
the principle of the jacketed stove. An ordinary stove with a jacket can 
be made to give entirely satisfactory results. The essential features are: 
(1) A jacket, (2) a connection between the pure outdoor air and the 
inside of jacket, and (3) a vent that will draw off the foul air." 




Before consolidation only a small one-room school was required at Rose Hill. 



68 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




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School Buildings and Grounds. 69 



SCHOOL SANITATION. 

The Prevention of Dust. — Too little attention is usually given to pre- 
venting dust from entering the schoolroom. The use of dustless crayon 
eliminates one source of dust, and keeping mud out of the schoolroom is 
better than dealing later with the dust that it creates. People do not 
clean mud from their shoes on entering a barn as they do on entering a 
parlor, and there is a close connection between the appearance of the 
schoolroom and the amount of dust to be inhaled by the pupils. To keep 
the room clean it should be turned over to the teacher and pupils in the 
fall as clean and attractive as the best kept home in the district, and it is 
only fair to insist that it be kept that way throughout the year. 

It is recommended that floors be thoroughly filled with boiled linseed 
oil applied hot and rubbed in to render them smooth and durable. A 
mixture of oil and paraffin has also been recommended as a floor dressing. 
But the use of mineral oil to saturate the floor is almost equal to dust as 
a nuisance. 

There should be an ample supply of shoe scrapers. A guard rail 
should be placed above them, as otherwise they are unsafe. A large 
steel-slatted mat should be placed outside the door in muddy weather. 
This style of mat is preferable because of its vertical scraping edges 
and its extreme flexibility. A fiber mat placed inside the door will also 
catch much more mud and much dust. It should be well cleaned in muddy 
weather after each general use. 

Sweeping and Dusting. — Ordinary dry sweeping with a broom, fol- 
lowed by dusting with a feather duster, is, from a hygienic point of view^ 
indefensible. It is worst when done just before school opens. But at any 
time it scatters fine particles of dust and germ life throughout the room, to 
be inhaled during the day as they are started into motion in the air by 
the thousands of movements. This fact becomes strongly evident when 
the sunbeam reveals the myriads of particles floating in such air. While 
this method of sweeping is injurious to pupils it is almost inhuman to 
janitors. 

While the room is being swept the windows and doors should be thrown 
wide open to permit the dust to escape and prevent impure air from being 
retained over night. The desks and woodwork should be wiped in the 
morning with a damp cloth or, better, one slightly moistened with kero- 
sene; a feather duster should not be used. 

The sweeping may .be done with wet sawdust and an ordinary broom 
or bristle brush. Sweeping preparations may be used as a substitute for 
sawdust. The use of a "dustless brush" is still more satisfactory. It 
contains an oil reservoir, out of which kerosene oil slowly spreads down a 
row of absorbent bristles and the flow is regulated by a screw cap. The 
oil flows fast enough to keep oily both the brush and the dust which it 
touches, but does not flow fast enough to oil the floor. The oily dust, be- 
ing too heavy to float in the air, is thrown along in front of the brush. 
The kerosene odor soon leaves the room. This form of sweeping avoids 



70 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

the annoyance and danger of dust and keeps the floors in good appear- 
ance. While some "oil brushes" are a failure those constructed as de- 
scribed above give entire satisfaction. Brushes like the Milwaukee dust- 
less brush give entire satisfaction. 

Cleaning and Disinfection. — Parts of the -building on which the hands 
are placed most frequently, such as doorknobs, doors and tops of desks, 
should especially be cleaned frequently. The walls and woodwork should 
be kept as clean as in a well-kept home and dust should not be permitted 
to accumulate on them. 

The schoolroom should be disinfected each year before the opening of 
school and frequently during the prevalence of contagious diseases. The 
burning of sulphur candles or formaldehyde lamps according to given 
directions is the standard method of disinfection. As a protection against 
fire these lamps or candles should be placed on a brick in a wide vessel 
containing a little water. Sulphur cannot always be used, as it kills 
plants and bleaches clothing. Formaldehyde does not produce these effects. 

Sanitary Drinking Caps. — The State Board of Health has abolished 
the use of the unsanitary common drinking cup and the common drink- 
ing bucket. As a substitute an earthen tank or jar with a faucet operated 
by thumb pressure is best where sanitary drinking fountains cannot be 
installed. Near the water tank may be an enclosed case with individual 
pigeon holes for the individual drinking cups. This case may be made by 
the pupils in schools equipped with a workbench and tools. If there is 
danger of this case proving unsanitary collapsible cups kept at the pupils' 
desks will be preferable. 

A plumber can easily attach a sanitary drinking fountain to an or- 
dinary water cooler or tank for use in rural schools and elsewhere where 
there is no access to hydrant water. An elevation of but a few feet would 
produce the required pressure. A device of this kind would remove the 
inconvenience of individual drinking cups. 

Sanitary Drinking Fountains. — Wherever hydrant water is available 
the drinking fountain has replaced the drinking cup. Experience with 
the different varieties of drinking fountain has shown the following re- 
quirements to be desirable: (1) A device to increase the flow of water 
within a certain limit while the pupil is drinking and yet permit a mod- 
erate flow at all times; (2) a stream of sufficient volume of water when 
the jet is about two to three inches high; (3) no projection exposed so 
that the lips can be placed around it; (4) no cup around the jet from 
which it is possible to drink. 

Sanitary Towels. — A sanitary towel made of paper has recently been 
placed on the market at a moderate price, and, if experience demonstrates 
that it is a satisfactory towel, it will undoubtedly "he used in schools as a 
substitute for the ordinary unsanitary towel. The claims for it are such 
that it deserves to be given a trial and adopted for general use if it 
proves to be satisfactory. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



71 




72 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



WATER CLOSETS. 

"[6427.] That the school boards and boards of education having super- 
vision over any school district in this state shall provide and maintain suit- 
able and convenient water closets for each of the schools under their 
charge or supervision. There shall be at least two in number, which shall 
be entirely separate from each other. It shall be the duty of the officers 
aforesaid to see that the same are kept in a neat and wholesome condition ; 
and failure to comply with the provisions of this act by the aforesaid 
officers shall be grounds for their removal from office." (Laws 1907, ch. 
27, sec. 522.) 

Strict compliance with the above statute is absolutely essential. A 
matter that demands the serious attention of boards of education is the 
condition of the outhouses at many of our school buildings. Without argu- 
ing the question, we must frankly confess that the condition of these 
premises in many places is a disgrace to the community, and the people 
should rise in indignation and demand that a radical change be made at 
once. Where it is not possible to put in inside closets, respectable out- 
buildings, properly screened, should be erected, not too near the school- 
house, and with good walks leading therefrom. Then the teachers and the 
board should see that these buildings are kept scrupulously clean. 

As will be seen by the statute, these buildings must be entirely separate. 
They should be located at the remotest corners of the grounds, at a reason- 
able distance from the schoolhouse, and in such a manner that there will 
be no possible contamination of the water supply. 

In many localities school authorities are grossly negligent of the out- 
houses. Usually they are poorly planned and kept in bad condition. The 
effect in such cases is a positive menace to the health and morality of the 
school. 

The opening to the closets should be screened by a board shield fence 
about six feet in height, extending across the front and along one side. 
For the boys' closet there should be a galvanized iron urinal in the form of 
an inclined trough located within the shield fence. 

For the average-sized rural school there should be from three to four 
openings partitioned off for privacy. A board should be so placed that 
the pupils cannot stand upon the seats. The seats should be provided with 
hinged, gravity-closing lids, and the woodwork should be sufficiently tight 
to exclude odors from the vault; and vaults in general should be screened 
or tightly enclosed so as not to admit those dangerous carriers of disease 
germs, flies. 

The vault should be well ventilated by means of a large vent extending 
from the vault to the roof, and plenty of ventilation should also be pro- 
vided for the closet. The walls should be sanded to a height of six or six 
and a half feet to afford a poor surface for knives and pencils. The gen- 
eral appearance of the grounds is improved by concealing the outbuildings 
with vines, tall shrubbery or bushes. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 73 

The secret of keeping closets clean is for them to be properly con- 
structed, inspected daily and swept and washed frequently. This is part 
of the janitor's duties, and if no janitor is employed some one should be 
paid for this service. 

The walls should be kept free from corrupting pictures and language. 
The entire building and interior especially should be kept well painted, and 
any defacing should be covered up at once with fresh paint and resanded. 

Closets without vaults or those with vaults that do not keep out water 
are unsatisfactory. The following is a standard type of vault : A cement- 
lined, water-tight excavation with a rear extension covered by a hinged 
lid or door for convenience in cleaning. 

Instead of a vault an excellent device is a stout metal-lined box rest- 
ing on wooden runners, so that it can be dragged away like a sled and 
emptied at proper intervals. The ease of keeping this type of closet clean 
should recommend it for general use. 

Both of the above types of closets require cleaning at frequent intervals, 
and also require disinfection. For this purpose a box of fine dry earth 
and a box of lime should be placed in the closet, to be applied with a shovel 
daily in the vault. Wood ashes are better than lime and should be used 
when they are available. Chloride of lime is also recommended as a 
disinfectant. The urinals also should frequently be disinfected with lime. 

It is possible to install water closets within the school building. A 
general plan for this is shown on another page. Water may be supplied 
by an air-pressure (pneumatic) tank in the basement or underground. 
The tank may be supplied with water by means of a pump operated by a 
windmill or by hand. For indoor water closets a septic tank for sewage 
disposal is required in rural districts and wherever there is no sewer 
system. The system is more expensive than outside closets, but it gives 
much greater satisfaction. 

For references concerning the construction of septic tanks, see pages 
67-70, of Kansas Health Laws, published by the State Board of Health. 



74 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



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School Buildings and Grounds. 75 



A SEPTIC TANK FOR RURAL SCHOOLS. 

By C. H. Chandler, State Architect. 

The accompanying cut represents the cross-section of a "septic tank, 
surface drainage" sewage disposal plant. The drawing shows very clearly 
the arrangement and construction. Its action is automatic and needs no 
attention for years at a time. 

The plant should be installed by a competent plumber and all work and 
material should be of the best. 

The catch basin or septic tank may be constructed of concrete or brick, 
thoroughly plastered with Portland cement. The lid should be tight-fitting 
and securely fastened. All pipes from building to basin, and from basin 
to the first joint outside the air vent, should be of cast iron; then several 
lengths of salt-glazed tile should be laid, and then the distributing laterals, 
to be of porous agricultural tile. The joints of the porous tile should be 
covered with a strip of zinc at least one inch wide and bent to conform to 
the shape of the pipe so as to prevent dirt from filling the pipe. The 
syphon trap and the air vents are the important parts of the plant, and 
can be installed by any competent plumber. 

The pipes should be underground only a sufficient depth to prevent 
freezing. It would be helpful to cultivate the ground over the distribut- 
ing laterals. The size of septic tank needed for a school of forty pupils 
would be about eight feet long and three feet wide and divided by two 
four-inch brick walls laid eight inches apart, the wall nearest the inlet to 
have several holes at the bottom, these holes to be the size of a half brick, 
the wall nearest the outlet to be solid, with its top several inches below the 
top of the tank, over which the liquids pass to the discharge chamber. 



SANITARY SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS. 

By S. J. Crumbing, M. D., Secretary State Board of Health. 

[Doctor Crumbine has done much to improve the sanitary conditions throughout 
the state, and his Ideas on this subject deserve the special attention of teachers and 
school boards.] 

The whole child goes to school. The child is body, mind and soul. The 
state undertakes to educate the child for the purpose of making out of it 
a better citizen than it would become without an education. It is mani- 
fest, then, that the type of citizen most desirable is one who is strong 
minded, strong bodied and strong souled. Such a citizen cannot be pro- 
duced if our system of education takes into account the training of the 
mind only. It must provide for a sound mind in a sound body. This is 
not a new doctrine, but one which has been neglected — in fact, almost 
entirely ignored — by local school officials and school patrons in Kansas. 
The knowledge which very many of our present citizens possess has been 
obtained at fearful cost>— the price paid being impaired eyesight, weak- 
ened vitality, spinal curvature, nervous trouble or some other physical 
defect which lessens their real value to the community and to the state. 

There are several factors which determine the sanitary condition of a 
schoolroom— the location of the building, the number of pupils accom- 
modated, the amount and direction of the light, the amount of fresh air 



76 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

supplied to each pupil, the proper admission of this fresh air and expul- 
sion of the foul air. 

These standards demand 15 square feet of floor space and 200 cubic 
feet of air space as the minimum amount for each pupil, as well as 30 
cubic feet of warm, fresh air per minute for each pupil. 

SCHOOL GROUNDS. 

The school site should be well back from a street, road or railroad, 
remote from dust and from filthy neighborhoods, swamp, marsh, or 
stagnant water. It should have, if possible, a southern exposure. By 
facing south and west not only the coveted northern light, but sunlight 
for the greater part of the day, is obtained. The building should be 
located on high ground, but not on a bleak hill, so that the ground will 
slope gently away from the building on all sides. The ground should not 
be damp, but as dry and porous as can be found. 

The value of sunlight to a school building cannot be overestimated. 
Its influence prevents dampness and is directly opposed to the culture of 
disease germs. It is a very valuable sanitary aid, and therefore should 
not be cut off by near-by trees or other objects, in order that there may 
be ample room for playground, proper ornamentation, etc. The site 
should contain not less than two acres for a one-room school and four or 
more acres for a larger school. This, of course, applies to rural schools. 

LIGHTING. 

Some time ago I requested a prominent eye specialist to give me his 
opinion as to the results of improper and insufficient light in the schools, 
and he replied : "Why, if it were not for the schools we specialists would 
have to retire from business." The weight of medical testimony as well 
as common observation confirms the truth of this statement. 

The schoolroom cannot be too well lighted. It is better to have too 
much window space than too little. Writers upon school hygiene uni- 
formly agree that the amount of transparent glass surface admitting 
light should be from one-fifth to one-fourth of the floor space, the exact 
amount depending on the location of the building, direction from which 
the light is admitted, size of the room, and proximity of other buildings 
or objects which might obstruct the light. 

The purpose of lighting a schoolroom is to prevent shadows from 
falling between the eye of the child and the object on which he must 
look while studying or working, and no room is properly lighted if 
shadows fall on the books or work of children in any part of the room. 

There is unanimity of opinion that light should enter from the left, as 
this avoids shadows. The windows should be set with the least possible 
space between them, in order to avoid bands of light and shadows. All 
windows should be placed as near the ceiling as possible, and should 
come no lower than three and one-half or four feet from the floor. 

The upper fourth of the window furnishes one-third of the light — also 
the best light; hence it is obvious that curtains should not be hung from 
the top, but from the bottom, or from the middle and bottom, and should 
roll upward. 

VENTILATION. 

There is no one thing connected with the economies of school life 
that is worth so much and costs so little as proper ventilation. There 
is great waste of the time arid energy of both teacher and pupil if the 
physical conditions upon which mental development depends are wanting. 
Nothing is more absolutely necessary for mental work than pure air 
and an abundance of it. Bad air, breathed constantly, means sluggish- 
ness, biliousness, headache, listlessness, inattention, lack of energy and of 
mental vigor, and prepares the subject for contagious and other dis- 
eases. It is the poorest kind of economy to deprive children of fresh air 
and of comfortable rooms in which to study. At no time in our lives are 



School Buildings and Grounds. 77 

we so susceptible to disease as in our school days. The rapid growth of 
the child, the mental strain and the bad sanitary conditions of schools 
render the child particularly liable to disease. 

Air that is rebreathed contains less oxygen than pure air, and con- 
tains carbon dioxide, a negative poison much heavier than air. It also con- 
tains volatile organic substances exhaled from the skin and from the lungs. 
These latter are very poisonous, and their odor can readily be detected 
upon entering the room from the fresh air. The air also contains more 
or less solid matter in the form of minute particles of dust, which are 
thought to bear an important part in the propagation and distribution of 
the bacteria of various diseases, :.s the dust generally contains bacteria 
in greater or less number. In outside air the number of bacteria varies 
greatly, being often less than one for every sixty-one cubic inches; in 
well-ventilated rooms the number varies from one to twenty, while in 
close schoolrooms as many as 600 have been found in the same space. Our 
plain duty, then, is to get rid of the impure air in the schools and to 
supply in its stead pure, fresh air. 

This must be done by a proper system of ventilation. What the 
respiratory system is to an animal the ventilating system is to a building. 
An efficient ventilating system cannot be had in cold weather without the 
aid of a system of heating, and any system of heating is incomplete and 
imperfect which does not provide a proper supply of fresh air — thirty 
cubic feet a minute for each child. The system of heating should also 
provide a practical method of removing the foul air. Moreover, the air 
must be admitted in such a way as to avoid draughts and secure uniform 
distribution. This cannot be done in cold weather through any system 
of window ventilation. 

The warm air should be admitted near the ceiling and the foul air, 
which, contrary to the popular opinion, is heavier than the warm, fresh 
air, on account of the amount of carbon dioxide it contains, should be 
exhausted at the floor level. The outlet for this foul air should be on 
the same side of the room with the inlet for the fresh air. 

Although the same principles apply to all buildings, in schools of 
larger sizes competent school architects and sanitary engineers should 
be employed to make the plans and install the heating and ventilating 
plants. As the large majority of our school buildings, however, are one- 
room and two-room size, it is impossible for some time to come, on 
account of the cost, to provide such plants for them. 

The simplest, cheapest and most effective method of ventilating the 
small school is the jacketed stove. It is probably not possible to meet 
fully the requirements of good sanitation (thirty cubic feet of fresh air 
per minute) with the jacketed stove, but conditions can be greatly im- 
proved with it, and if the teacher, as she should do, will throw open the 
windows at each recess and secure a complete change of air, the results 
will be eminently satisfactory. 

If a jacketed stove cannot be secured, any ordinary stove can be 
surounded with a zinc or Russian jacket. This jacket should not be more 
than eight inches from the stove; should be fastened securely to the floor 
and should be four or five feet high. It should have a large door extend- 
ing to the floor, to afford ingress to the stove and to enable children to 
warm and dry their feet upon entering the school. Under the stove 
there should be an opening to admit fresh air. This air can be conducted 
from the outside of the building by an air shaft. As the cold air is 
admitted under the hot stove, it is confined by the jacket, is heated as it 
passes over the stove, rises to the ceiling and is distributed. After it is 
breathed it becomes heavier and settles toward the floor, and is exhausted 
by means of a ventilating flue. 

This flue should contain an opening at least 20 x 30 inches. There 
are several ways of providing such a flue, but it must always be so 
constructed as to be heated by the smoke flue. The best method is to 
build a chimney with two flues, separated by the thickness of one brick. 



78 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

The smoke flue should be 12 x 21 inches, and the other 21 x 30 inches. 
The heat from the smoke flue will warm the other flue sufficiently to cause 
a draught which will carry off the foul air. 

These methods can be used only in new buildings. In old buildings the 
following plan will be found effective: Construct a sheet-iron pipe ten 
or twelve inches in diameter, extending to within six inches of the floor, 
with a drum at the top through which the stovepipe passes. Jacket the 
stove and admit fresh air as above described. A very good system will 
be provided in this manner. The stoves, in all instances, should not be 
placed in the middle of the room, but at one side or in a corner. 

The temperature commonly accepted as proper for a schoolroom is 
68° F., and it should not be allowed to rise over 70° F. Schoolrooms 
are ordinarily kept too warm, often 80°, and children accustomed to 
being in such an overheated atmosphere are unable to stand exposure 
without contracting colds and other diseases. 

OTHER SOURCES OF DANGER. 

There are several matters which may appear unimportant but which 
tend materially to spread disease. These demand the constant and 
thoughtful attention of the teacher. In spite of every effort to make the 
school healthy, and in spite of every precaution to exclude children suffer- 
ing from communicable diseases, such children are frequently found in 
the schools. The teacher should do his or her utmost to prevent such 
children from infecting others. Separate seats and individual books are 
highly important. In iddition, each child should, if possible, be provided 
with an individual dri iking cup, as the dangers from the school dipper 
are most numerous, ani such dipper has been abolished by the State Board 
of Health. The exchange of pencils and the like should be discounte- 
nanced, as it is a ready method of spreading disease. If a child which 
has diphtheria germs lurking in its throat puts its pencil into its mouth 
and then loans the pencil to another child, there is very material danger 
that the second child will contract diphtheria. Similar danger lies in the 
childish habits of exchanging chewing gum and of eating candy together. 
The teacher should, wherever possible, put an absolute veto on such 
practices. Spitting on the floor of the school should also be prohibited by 
the teacher. 

SWEEPING AND DUSTING. 

In sweeping a room raise as little dust as possible, because dust, when 
breathed in, irritates the nose and throat and often sets up catarrh. 

Before sweeping bare floors, sprinkle moist sawdust or some good 
"sweeping compound" on the floor, and use a hair brush to sweep. This 
insures almost complete freedom from dust, and the dissemination of in- 
fectious germs, if any be present on the floor. 

In dusting a room, do not use a feather duster or dry cloths, because 
these do not remove the dust from the room but only brush it into the air. 
Do all dusting with slightly moistened cloths and rinse them out in water 
when the work is finished. 

The precautions outlined above for safeguarding the health of the 
school may seem onerous. But the teacher should remember the peculiar 
susceptibility of the child to disease during the long school day, and 
should feel it his solemn duty to protect the child's health while instruct- 
ing its mind. The one is no less important than the other. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



79 




GRAMMAR SCHOOL, WELLINGTON. 
The above building shows the proper banking of windows for unilateral lighting. 




A two-room school. 



80 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



NEEDED EQUIPMENT FOR A SCHOOLROOM. 

1. Desks to fit all sizes of children. Every row of desks the same size. 

2. A neat, comfortable desk for the teacher, containing drawers that 
can be securely locked, and a good chair. 

3. Good blackboard within reach of all the children, and plenty of it. 

4. A bookcase constructed to protect the books from dust and mice, 
and provided with a safe lock. 

5. A well-selected library of from 50 to 150 books, suitable as refer- 
ence books and home reading, and adapted to the pupils of all grades. 
Expensive reference books are of little value to most schools. The Kansas 
Teachers' and Pupils' Reading Circle Board has appproved a list of books 
suitable for rural school libraries. Publishers of textbooks have lists 
suitable for all schools. 

6. One or more sets of supplementary first, second and third readers. 
A copy of the adopted textbooks for the use of the teacher. 

7. There should be dictionaries such as the School Textbook Commis- 
sion has approved. 

8. A good cheap globe, costing about two dollars. 

9. A map of Kansas and where possible a county map, and a set of 
wall maps on rollers in a case, consisting of the hemispheres, North and 
South America, Europe and Asia, Africa, and the United States. The 
set will not cost more than fifteen dollars. 

10. Two or three select pictures on the wall. 

11. A box of cards containing printed words suitable for children to 
construct sentences when learning to read, or the Arnett Reading Chart. 

12. Several packages of colored splints of various lengths. 

13. A box of sewing cards, to be used as patterns. A perforating pad 
and needle. Six spools of silks or yarns of the standard colors. 

14. Several packages of weaving mats and needles. 

15. A set of dull-pointed scissors for cutting, to be used by the younger 
children. A few packages of colored paper for cutting. 

16. Two yards of soft muslin, two spools of thread (a fine and coarser 
number), and a package of needles, to be used by the older pupils on 
Friday afternoons for the "sewing bee." Some common buttons for 
button sewing, etc. 

17. A set of pasteboard geometric forms made by the teacher and 
pupils. 

18. Pint, quart, gallon, peck, foot, yard and meter measures. A ther- 
mometer. 

19. Noiseless erasers, a few rubber-tipped pointers, brooms, and 
dustless sweeping material, or a dustless brush, a poker, a fire 
shovel, a wastebasket, a wash basin, towels; and outside of the building 
a foot scraper and a foot broom or fiber door mat, and small wooden 
paddles made by pupils. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 81 



A MODEL TWO-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE. 

By L. M. Wood, Architect. 

The following ideas, and especially those relating to small school buildings, 
are deserving of special attention : 

In planning schoolhouses there are some things that are common to 
all, and some things that are essential to all, but some of which cannot 
be secured on account of the amount of money available. Wardrobes for 
the children's clothing should be put in if possible, and in all cases 
should be connected only with the schoolrooms, and preferably by two 
openings, without doors. This allows the children to march in at one 
opening and out at the other, taking their clothing as they go, and like- 
wise prevents marauders from stealing the clothing, as is sometimes 
done in the larger towns. 

No light should be taken on the right of the children, nor in front of 
them. Modified light in the rear may be obtained by the use of half 
windows, set high, which allows the blackboards to be carried entirely 
around the room on that side under them. Properly treated, the effect 
is good, architecturally, on the interior. The light in the rear may be 
modified by the use of double shades, one of which is hung at the top, 
and the other on the top of the lower sash. 

Where an inner room is necessary, giving opportunity to light only 
on the narrow side of the room, make the entire side of the room of 
glass, with proper care for construction, and use prismatic glass in the 
top sash. This has been found to be entirely satisfactory. When, as 
above stated, a middle room is incorporated in the plan, and it is found 
impossible to light the wardrobes directly through the outer wall, the 
solid partition between the schoolroom and the wardrobe may be left 
out, and a balustrade put in, three feet high, with a newell at each end 
extending to the ceiling, and leaving openings at each end corresponding 
to the door openings shown elsewhere. This gives ample light in the 
wardrobes, and makes it possible to seat persons there, if desired, during 
school meetings, when additional seats are needed. Window area should 
always be equal to at least one-fifth of the floor area where possible, and 
when otherwise should be helped out by the use of prismatic glass, as 
stated above. 

In a two-room house it is better to seat the children so that they will 
face in the same direction, as shown here, then with the use of flexifold 
partition the two rooms can be thrown together as one, and the audience 
be seated facing the same way. 

Private lockers or closets for each teacher are shown, placed between 
the wardrobes. These should have good locks, and be fitted with at 
least one shelf and half a dozen triple-ward hooks, put on with screws. 
These are lighted indirectly by windows facing upon the corridor, directly 
opposite the outer windows for that part. Provision is made for books 
in each room by means of a bookcase built in the corner, where shown. 

Exterior doors should open outward into a vestibule, as shown, so 
that they will be protected from violent winds. The outer openings from 
these have no doors, but in places where these open vestibules are found 
to be used by heedless ones for purposes foreign to good breeding, they 
can be protected by folding iron doors at a small cost. 

As described above, this makes a complete two-room schoolhouse, but 
if more room is desired a basement can be built under it, usually at a 
small cost additional, and thereby secure two more rooms, as shown, for 
use as manual-training workrooms and play rooms. These have the 
requisite closets and storerooms for the apparatus. In this case the 
coal room is placed in the basement. Stairs leading from the basement 
to the main floor make it convenient for children passing to and from 



82 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



Prittni.fic Ql at; 



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fir^^'-h 




J^XSEMENT fLAN, 



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This plan for a two-room school building was drawn for 
this bulletin by L. M. Wood, architect, by special request, to 
work out a combination two-room building and assembly hall 
and to show an economical plan of adapting the basement for 
workroom and playroom purposes. To provide a good assembly 
hall the windows must be banked on the short side of the 
room. The use of prismatic glass in the upper sash is re- 
quired to throw sufficient light to the opposite side of the 
room. 



School Buildings mid Grounds. 



83 



b^^m^s-^mimamsm^mmmi^mmb^^^^^^ ^ ti& ~E£ezeSB*E!<M&s3& 




; t;v;:':^=!L -~^ -. 



?0 TZ C H 

B BET 



Plan of a two-room school building. A library and assembly room are provided for. 
This plan and the two following are adaptations from Minnesota. 




Rear view of the same building. Observe the high windows and the well lighted 
basement. Such basements are much needed for workrooms and they may be used 
a i playrooms. 



84 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




Another plan of a two-room school building. The plan for a two-room building 
requires but little modification for a four-room building. 




A simple plan for a two-room building. An assembly room cannot be provided 
and an additional window is required on the side of each classroom. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 85 

the various rooms, and also for bringing up the coal for the heaters. 
The connecting hallway makes it possible to take coal to either room 
without passing through the other. In this case, the use of individual 
room heaters is contemplated. Fresh air is supplied to these directly 
from the outer air by use of iron wall boxes built into the wall on the 
outside, and connected with the shell or jacket of the heater by an iron 
pipe. A damper should be placed in this to regulate the supply. Foul- 
air vents should invariably be taken from and through the wardrobes, 
for the reason that it assists in ventilating the clothing of the pupils. 
The foul-air vents should be at or near the floor, while the heated air 
should be delivered at the top of the heater, above the heads of the chil- 
dren. This applies as well to rooms heated by any other method. 



A TWO-BOOM SCHOOL BUILDING. 

Only where the building is made of masonry and has a well-elevated basement 
is the flat roof applicable in one-story two-room buildings. 

Since the problem of heating and ventilation has been simplified, it is 
not necessary to build the stories as high as formerly. Twenty-five years 
ago it was thought that the more air there was contained in a room the 
more time it took to vitiate it. But now that it is known that an air 
current is the easiest thing handled extant, and that it can be made to 
do what is wanted of it, if kept hold of until it is desired to let go, 
stories are built lower. There are several reasons for this. It is 
cheaper to build the house, cheaper to heat it, and easier to handle the 
ventilation, provided the good teachers will let the window severely 
alone. An open window will utterly destroy any system of ventilation 
by mechanical means, and will lower the degree of heat in the room. 
The force of the incoming current of air will assist the ventilation, but 
in all cases it should be assisted by the use of an automatic ventilator, 
of established merit, placed upon the top of the foul-air shaft where 
the use of a fan cannot be afforded. 

The exterior is simply treated, and it is thought best, in one-story 
houses, to put a pitch roof on them, to give them more character than 
would be had with a flat roof. The simplest pitch roof is, of course, laid 
with shingles, and they should be of Oregon cedar five butts to two inches, 
and in all cases put on with cut iron nails, as steel nails are eaten away 
in two years by the acid in the cedar. Dipping shingles is at all times 
advisable in preference to painting them, and is of small cost. 



86 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



Deadening of floors is not necessary in one-story houses, unless the 
basement is used for class or study rooms. The only efficient deadening 
that I have found is made by first covering the joists with a floor of 
surfaced sheathing, then covering that with a blanket of degummed flax 
fiber, Acme hair insulator or seaweed as a sound absorbent; on this lay 
strips of lith board, one-half inch thick and four inches wide, placed six- 
teen inches apart on centers ; on these lay strips of wood, 2x2 inches, 
without nailing, and on these lay the finished flooring. Care must be 
taken to not nail anything through into the rough flooring, as the vi- 
bration is carried through and the deadening effect is lost. This method 
of deadening costs about thirty dollars per room of the ordinary size. 



.MY: '.A i .-■ ' , 




Thi\<< PsOom jsboa/ 



Ventilating ducts should be lined with tin, to make them air-tight, and 
where possible should be connected together in the attic into a receiving 
chamber, from which the ventilator should go out. Valve registers should 
be used at the foul-air inlet, so that the escape can be controlled in 
windy weather. Otherwise the loss of heat will be to great. 

Floors are better made of edge-grained yellow pine, smoothed off, and 
given two coats of strictly pure boiled linseed oil. This will give better 
satisfaction than any prepared floor dressing. It will turn dark by re- 
peated use, but can be removed every three or four years with strong 
lye or Gold Dust, after which new coating can be applied. It is not nec- 
essary to put a wainscot on the walls, or a wood base. Instead of either, 
run a 1%-inch quarter-round at the bottom of the wall, and nail to the 
floor. If desired, a Portland cement base can be run on the walls. 

The location of the room heaters shown will depend largely upon the 
frontage of the building. If the building fronts north, the heaters should 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



87 



be set on that side and the chimneys built accordingly. Chimneys are not 
a leading architectural feature of buildings of this class, and hence it 
will make but little difference where they go. In the three-room and six- 
room houses shown, the teachers' closets are omitted and lockers substi- 
tuted. These have one shelf, six triple-ward hooks, are fitted with good 
lccks, and are located in the wardrobes where shown. 




AN EIGHT-ROOM BUILDING. 
Two siphon ventilators tire shown above the roof. 



The three-room house contemplates a basement, and it is reached by 
stairs from the front hall. The basement is divided into work and play 
rooms, with the necessary storerooms, coal room, and closets. It may or 
may not have one or two outside doors, as desired. The arrangement of 
the second story of the six-room house follows that of the first floor, with 
the exception that the partition marked "A" is open, and has a flexifold 
partition, as shown on the other plans, and that over the main entrance 
hall there is a superintendent's room of ample size, with closets for school 
stores. Janitor's closets and apparatus rooms can be added in this, in 
the hall, without detriment to the plan. When the use of a second story 
is contemplated, then the building comes within the recent state law 
which provides that in schoolhouses of two stories or more there shall 
be two or more separate and distinct exits from each story above the 
first story, or shall have ample and sufficient fire escapes, etc. The latter 
clause has been construed by the state architect to apply to old buildings 
only. A very complete device has been perfected which, by means of 
coiling steel shutters, sliding sash doors, covered with wire or solid, is 
used to instantly close off the stairs from the rest of the house, and 
which, by means of separate exit doors, makes it impossible for the 
second-floor children to come into the first story at all but compels them 
to go out by their own doors. These closing shutters are worked by 
hand, or by electric buttons from each room, and elsewhere about the 
building, and are closed instantly. Dry batteries are used for this. This 
device does away with the use of exterior fire escapes, and is installed at 
much less cost. It has already been approved by the state architect and 
other experts along this line. At all ordinary times the shutters are 



88 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




School Buildings and Grounds. 89 

open, or up, and the stairs are used as in any building. The special 
exit doors are not used except in case of fire or panic from other causes. 
They may be covered with porches on the outside, or otherwise, as de- 
sired. A smoke-proof door has also been devised, for use at the entrance 
to the furnace room from the building, which, as the fire generally starts 
in the furnace room, prevents a volume or smoke from suffocating the 
children before they can escape from the building. 

Flat roofs should have half an inch pitch to the foot for tin, and 
three-quarters of an inch to the foot for composition roofs. These are 
given as the minimum. 



GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 

By N. P. Neilsen, Architect. 

This article by an experienced architect covers well the special features of 
large school buildings. 

The general arrangement of a school building should be considered 
first, from the point of utility and safety, second, economical operation, 
and third, cost of construction. 

The accompanying description is of a modern combination grade and 
high-school building, embodying the following arrangement and applying 
in general to the smaller as well as the larger buildings. 

The gymnasium, with lockers and showers, manual training, domestic 
science, physics and chemistry rooms, will be located in the basement. 
Boys' and girls' toilet rooms with separate entrances and teachers' 
toilet rooms, separate, are also located in the basement. Dark boiler 
rooms should never be built. All other basement rooms will have an 
eleven-foot ceiling. The entire basement should be built seven feet above 
grade to insure light. 

The first- and second-story classrooms are all of a standard size, 23 x 32 
feet. This dimension has become standard because of the following 
reasons: (1) It has been considered time and again that a teacher can- 
not handle to advantage more than from 40 to 45 pupils, whom a room of 
this size will seat. (2) If the room is smaller it will not accommodate a 
large enough number of pupils. (3) All rooms are now being lighted 
from one side (the left side of the pupil) . This should be the long side of 
the room, and 23 feet is as far as the light can be thrown satisfactorily with 
the customary height of windows. For the same reason the assembly 
room is made long and narrow rather than square. (4) Twenty-four- 
foot joists are standard and carried in stock. Longer joists than this 
must be sawed to order and cost from six to ten dollars per thousand ad- 
ditional, and this usually causes delay in the work. 

The assembly room should be of sufficient capacity to seat all the pupils 
of the school in the assembly-room chairs with one wide arm, and to con- 
tain a small stage slightly raised, with at least one dressing room in con- 
nection. 

There should be a room each for the superintendent, principal and 
teachers. A library should be provided in the most convenient location. 

All classrooms should have four straight walls without any projections, 
and each should be provided with a five-foot wardrobe containing one 
extra heavy hook with number for each pupil. Lockers in place of a 
wardrobe are noisy and unsatisfactory. Pupils marching two abreast may 
hang up hats and coats on both sides of the wardrobe without stopping. 

All classrooms should be provided with two 3 x 7-foot doors — one 
through the wardrobe and the other an emergency door direct from the 
room to the main corridor. 

Window sash should be made of steel, all in one piece, to do away with 
all shadow lines in the room from intermediate piers, and the window 
space should be one-fourth the area of the floors. 



90 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




School Buildings and Grounds. 



91 






^U 



L-l. 



m- 



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*3 









tg awa-flahaua.r j ^ 



SECONO FLOOR 







-IT™ 




Floor plans of combined grade and high school. 



92 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



Floors are deadened with double floors laid with 1%-inch space be- 
tween, containing a layer of deadening felt. 

Blackboards are placed in the front of the room and on the side op- 
posite the windows. Above the blackboard is placed a strip of cork carpet 
from eight to twelve inches wide. This cork is appreciated very much in 
the modern school, as it affords a place where a common thumb tack will 
fasten up sketches and ornaments without marring the walls. Flowers 
and autumn leaves put up by the pupils in various designs increase the 
beauty of the rooms materially. 

A vacuum cleaner operated in the boiler room, with hose connection 
on each floor, permits the janitor to take care of many more rooms than in 
the old way; besides, the system is a most effective one. 

The modern clock system affords the principal an opportunity to in- 
augurate a system of order that cannot otherwise be obtained. The system 
is operated from a central point to the various rooms. 




ALMA PUBLIC SCHOOL. 

Kansas limestone was used to construct this building. Stone insures the perma- 
nency to the exterior that fire-proof construction insures to the interior. 



The exterior of modern schoolhouses of more than two rooms should, 
in all cases, be of stone, brick and cement. Galvanized iron is to be 
avoided, as it requires constant attention. Harmony should prevail, and 
unsightly fire escapes should not be permitted in new work. The school- 
house architect should be thoroughly familiar with the state laws con- 
cerning fire protection in order to arrange the exits and stairs in ac- 
cordance with them, and no schoolhouse over two rooms should be at- 
tempted without the advice of an experienced schoolhouse architect. 

If the entire building cannot be built fireproof, by all means the first 
floor and stairs should be so constructed. 

In the past there has been some excuse for disastrous calamities through 
fires. But in the future we should have none, because we know now how 
to provide against them with fireproof buildings, and every representa- 
tive of the people should make it his business to see that laws are enacted 
to prohibit any more combustible material from being used in public 
buildings. 

The high roofs and towers on public buildings are seldom, if ever, 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



93 



used now on any work of consequence. A high roof is more expensive, 
harder to maintain and harder on the building on account of increased 
wind pressure. 

Towers are but a source of expense and seldom add any beauty to the 
building. The original purpose of the school bell in the community is a 
thing of the past, as everyone to-day can afford a dollar watch. At the 
school the large bell is superseded by the hand bell and the clock system. 
Children having to depend on themselves for time are taught self-reliance. 




In the heating and ventilation of modern buildings there is no system 
quite so efficient as the steam-blast system. Radiators are placed on the 
exposed sides of rooms and operated in connection with a ventilation 
system. The air is heated in passing over steam coils in cold weather 
and forced into rooms by an electric fan, or one otherwise operated. This 
air always enters on the opposite side of the room from the radiators, 
about eight feet above the floor, and the outlet is located at the floor line 
on the side of the room on which the air enters. A circuit is created 
that distributes the radiator heat uniformly over the room and at the 
same time the foul air is expelled. The entire heating and ventilation 
system should be regulated by an automatic system regulated by air 
pressure. Otherwise, certain parts of the building will become overheated 
and part of the windows will be thrown open, while the janitor is still 
shoveling coal into the furnace. 

Ordinary furnace heating with gravity circulation can be employed in 
the smaller buildings, but will never be so efficient as where there is 
forced circulation. The warm air always entering the room on the interior 
walls will not produce the same temperature on the exposed side of the 



94 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

Toilet rooms can be arranged in even the smallest school buildings 
to-day. With the modern dry-closet system or septic-tank system this 
can be accomplished without sewers with as much efficiency as though 
there were both sewer and waterworks systems to which to attach. In 
lieu of waterworks a compression tank in the basement or buried in the 
ground will supply the water pressure required for any septic system. 



THE HIGH SCHOOL OF TO-DAY. 

By John F. Stanton, Architect. 

No department of school architecture has made so much improvement 
in recent years as that of adapting high-school buildings to the various 
departments that differ so widely in their requirements. 

In providing buildings of this nature there will be found in each com- 
munity certain distinctive local conditions which must be given considera- 
tion. Obviously it would be wise to select a location away from the busi- 
ness thoroughfares and in a locality where manufacturing or other undue 
noises are not liable to encroach. 

The grounds should, where possible, be of ample area to insure a 
proper setting for the building and of ample size to afford space for an 
athletic field. The specific amount of ground to be used varies, as is 
instanced by the following: In England, one-fourth of an acre for each 
250 pupils; in Prussia, three square metres (a little more than three and 
one-half square yards) per pupil shall be set aside; while in this country 
good practice has determined that from thirty to fifty square feet should 
be the ratio per pupil for this use. 

The method of construction embraces three varieties: Ordinary (joist 
and stud partitions), slow burning (heavy beams and metal or masonry 
partitions), and fireproof. The last is, as its name implies, the best, but 
in many instances the amount of money available makes it prohibitive, 
and here the skilled architect proves himself of great value, not only in 
planning the building but in devising ways whereby the nearest approach 
to fire-resisting construction may be obtained for the least cost. This 
result should be sought, not for the especial preservation of the property 
but for the added protection of the occupants, our own children. 

In connection with this desire to protect is the need of sanitation, which 
in a great measure may benefit or injuriously affect the student, both men- 
tally and physically. An abundance of light should be furnished. In 
the classrooms it should come from the proper direction to best protect 
the eyes and to help counteract the germs of disease. A plentiful supply 
of fresh clean air, and a sewage disposal system of ample capacity, are 
indispensable. It is wise to have the plumber make a thorough test of all 
pipe work before the fixtures are installed. This can be done thoroughly 
by means of water, smoke, peppermint, or the use of ether, and should 
be under the careful inspection of the superintendent of the building or 
the architect, and all leaks permanently stopped. Each floor should be 
provided with sanitary drinking fountains made so that the user's lips 
come in contact with nothing but running water. 

From an exterior pouit of view any building should present a pleas- 
ing, harmonious and distinctive appearance. This is true architecture, 
and who could ask for a more fitting application than to the school 
buildings of the country. No school grounds should be surrounded by 
close board fences. Where it is necessary to place fences, only open 
metal construction should be used, so that sunshine and air may reach 
all parts of the grounds. 

The high-school building of to-day includes many improvements over 
those of the preceding generation, and almost the first marked difference 
will be found in the wide, well-lighted corridors and wide, ample stairs, 
certain ones being made fireproof with adjoining walls of masonry, 
metal stringers and treads, and the entire staircase semi-isolated by 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



95 




96 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



means of metal-encased doors and wire glass. There should be one set 
of this construction in every schoolhouse. 

No matter how small the building may be, there is now generally 
found a gymnasium with showers for both sexes adjoining. This is 
usually located in a high, well-lighted basement, presumably under the 
auditorium, which is preferably located on the first floor. In the basement 
will also be found the heating and ventilating equipment, the toilet rooms, 
and frequently other well-lighted rooms which are used for various 
purposes. 




BONNER SPRINGS HIGH SCHOOL. 
Note the basement story is three-fourths out of the ground and the windows large. 



On the first floor will be located the auditorium, classrooms, offices 
and cloakrooms. There will also be located, in various parts of the build- 
ing, laboratories with small preparation and storerooms adjoining, a 
library, teachers' rest room, and also one for the young lady pupils. 
Small lecture rooms will be located near the laboratories. Rooms are 
also arranged for manual training and domestic science. Commercial 
and typewriting rooms are being required, and in many of the larger 
buildings lunch rooms are provided for the pupils. Janitor quarters 
and private toilet rooms for the teachers should be located on each floor, 
and a general storage and repair room should be provided. 

In the lighting of classrooms great improvements have been made. The 
tops of windows should be near the ceiling and the windows should be 
grouped on the side of the room furnishing exclusive left-side light to 
the pupil, and the spaces between them made as narrow as possible in 
order to obviate the possibility of crossed light. The window area should 
equal from one-fifth to one-fourth of the floor area of the room. The 
cloakroom adjoining is (in high schools) being superseded by individual 
lockers, either plain or ventilated. It is to be hoped that the legislature 
of this state will, in the near future, enact a law making it compulsory 
to install in all school buildings a system of heating and ventilation such 
as will insure a plentiful supply of fresh, tempered air to the various 
rooms and the removal of the foul and vitiated air which so often 
poisons the systems and makes slow the mental action of the pupils. I 
believe that when the condition is thoroughly understood and the danger 
to our children through the lack of such an installation is realized, no 
one will begrudge or miss the slight additional cost. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 97 



SPECIAL FEATURES IN HIGH-SCHOOL BUILDING. 

By J. H. Felt, of J. H. Felt & Co., Architects. 

When a school board is confronted with the problem of building a new 
high-school building, the local newspapers, as well as every citizen, will 
of course say that "It must be strictly modern." The board members, de- 
siring to do their full duty, are very much perplexed to know how they are 
going to tell when the building is modern and contains only the latest 
ideas that have proven good. Visiting new buildings will help, but not 
all new buildings are modern. 

A building and its equipment may be new, but if the arrangement is 
poor, the lighting bad — being either insufficient or not properly brought 
into the rooms— the heating insufficient or not adapted for school pur- 
poses, the ventilation bad or inadequate, then the building is not modern. 
Arrangement, light, heat and ventilation must be right, as they are 
fundamental. The whole arrangement may have been laid out by some 
one who has had little or no experience in school planning, and who has 
but little or no idea of the work that must be done in the various rooms. 

As the purpose of this article is to point out some of the essentials of 
the modern high school, it seems that any suggestion which would assist 
boards in going more directly to the desired end will not be out of place. 

First of all, the services of a competent architect who has had wide 
experience in planning and supervising school buildings should be se- 
cured; one who can show a record of competency and honesty above ques- 
tion. Let the board lay their case before him, study it with him, discuss 
it with him, and consult him about the site. Then when a good general 
idea of the requirements of the school have been determined, have sketches 
and careful estimates prepared, which in all cases should include the 
necessary modern furniture and equipment for every department, so that 
the plant will be complete when finished. This procedure will save the 
board a vast amount of trouble and worry, so say nothing of the splendid 
results that will follow. 

Under the old method of architectural competition, or that of the boar.l 
making their own estimates (possibly with the assistance of the local 
carpenter or builder, who does not know, and should not be expected to 
know, what a modern school building must contain), the board usually 
finds, when the architect is called or a contract is to be let, that there are 
not enough funds by at least 10 to 25 per cent, and you hear them say: 
"If we had only known this we would have called for a little more money." 
The result is that the building must be cut down or additional funds asked 
for, which means delay, embarrassment, and a certain amount of sus- 
picion or talk, all of which could have been avoided had the right method 
been pursued. 

A well-planned and well-equipped building placed on a low or poorly 
located piece of ground, with insufficient playgrounds, can never become 
an ideal school plant, for the most modern and thoroughly equipped 
gymnasium will never meet all of the requirements and needs of a place 
for the necessary outdoor exercise. 

The modern high school, so far as the regular school working space is 
concerned, has eliminated the basement. The building, instead, should sit 
well out of the ground — in fact, entirely out of the ground except for 
footings and foundations. In the smaller buildings, where the entire 
heating and ventilating plant and fuel rooms have to be housed, it is 
sometimes advisable to let the basement story stand about two-thirds or 
three-fourths out of the ground. The idea is thoroughly practical and de- 
sirable, as the remaining rooms are well adapted for manual training, 



98 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




School Buildings and Grounds. 99 

domestic science, play rooms, and lunch rooms, and even a few recitation 
rooms are not entirely out of place. 

The mere supplying of rooms for manual training and domestic 
science is not sufficient. These rooms must be equipped with the most 
modern apparatus for the work to be performed. In the manual-training 
room it is a good plan to have the boys construct many of the cases, 
shelves, and other equipments, and in every instance the boys should be 
required to prepare a draught of the article they propose to build, in ele-< 
vation, section and detail. This in itself is a good educational feature. 
In large schools, where space will permit, there should always be a well- 
lighted, well-equipped draughting room adjacent to the manual-training 
department. 

The offices should be on the first floor, in a commanding position, usu- 
ally adjacent to the main entrance. In large buildings there should be a 
superintendent's private office, with toilet and vault or closet, his recep- 
tion room, and a board room adjacent. The principal's office should be 
centrally located and roomy, and in the largtr buildings two rooms are 
good. There should always be a teachers' lest room, well lighted, with 
toilet and cloak closet, and if possible it should be where there is the 
least noise. These offices must not be regarded as mere conveniences for 
the officers and teachers, for modern requirements have made them abso- 
lutely essential. 

Every high school should have a gymnasium. If the building is small 
a large play room should be set aside. However, this gymnasium will be 
of little use, no matter how admirably planned, if not properly equipped. 
By equipment is meant not only the necessary apparatus for exercise and 
games, but well-equipped shower and locker rooms. These shower and 
locker rooms should be on the same level as the gymnasium floor and 
easily reached both from the gymnasium and the athletic field. Some 
boards are inclined to think that if they have a good gymnasium they can 
dispense with the athletic field, or vice versa. While this is done in some 
cases we believe it a serious error, as both fill a place and are essential to 
the proper physical development of the youth. 

Where study halls are used it is frequently necessary to combine the 
study hall and assembly room, particularly in small buildings. Sometimes 
this room is seated entirely with opera chairs, sometimes entirely with 
desks, and sometimes opera chairs are used for one-half of the room 
nearest the stage or platform, and the rear portion is seated with desks. 
In this case, when extra crowds are to be accommodated, each alternate 
aisle between the desks may be seated with chairs. 

The ideal assembly room, where space and funds will permit, should 
have a bowled floor, should be seated with opera chairs, and should have 
a reasonable amount of stage. One mistake that boards are liable to make 
is to build an enormously large assembly room to accommodate some par- 
ticularly large audience once or twice a year, forgetting that a great 
amount of this space must lie idle and must be heated all the rest of the 
time. Besides, these enormously large auditoriums are always built out 
of funds that could be put to better use — that is, everyday use. 

Where separate study halls are used they should be centrally located, 
well lighted, and have a level floor. The library should be in easy reach 
of the study hall. 

Recitation rooms must be well lighted and have plenty of blackboard 
space,, A recitation room that will seat thirty should be the maximum, 
but in many cases forty and even fifty are placed in one room. 

The modern high school must have a well-arranged and well-equipped 
science department, varying from one room to one or more for each of 
the sciences. There must be ample storage rooms and cases, dark rooms 
and fume closets. An arrangement that has met with popular favor is 
one in which the lecture room, with elevated ledges for the seats, is lo- 
cated between the science rooms, separated by glass partitions. This 
permits the science teacher, when hearing a class, to have full survey of 
the laboratories at the same time. No matter how small the building, at 



100 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

least one room should be set aside for science, for experiments in agri- 
culture and horticulture; and do not forget to provide for expansion, as 
these, together with manual training and domestic science, are growing 
and you will soon need more space for them if you propose to keep your 
school abreast with the progressive schools. These things are practical 
and are sure to develop fast. 

There should be one room for sewing, and, where space will permit, a 
smaller room for fitting, which should have a large closet with shelves. 
These rooms must be well lighted. 

A well-lighted room, or rooms, should be provided for drawing and art 
work, with cases, tables and other equipment. 

Where bookkeeping and other business subjects are taught a large, 
well-lighted room is needed, and adjacent to and opening off from it 
smaller rooms for typewriting. These rooms may be separated by a glars 
partition. In the larger room should be a counter with screen, tables, 
etc., that the work may be properly carried on. 

Ample space must be provided for lockers or racks for wraps, which 
must be well lighted and ventilated. 

In larger buildings a janitor's closet on each floor should be provided 
for mops, brushes, etc. 

As to the kind of materials to be used local conditions will govern some- 
what, but a hard-burned vitrified brick laid in cement mortar makes an 
excellent facing when properly trimmed with a good stone. These brick 
are not expensive, are durable, practically nonabsorbent, and will remain 
clean. 

The floors, where not of cement, asphalt or tile, should be of hard maple 
or vertical-grain yellow pine. 

Hard wall plaster should be used, and where the funds will not per- 
mit the use of tile, cement wainscot or dado should be run around all 
halls, rooms, etc. The woodwork should be simple and plain, and free 
from ledges to catch dust. 

The plumbing throughout should be of the ventilated type, and as 
simple in construction as possible. In addition to vents usually provided 
by city ordinances for soil pipes, etc., there should be a system of ven- 
tilation that will force the air out of the rooms either through the fixture 
or over and around it. 

All drinking fountains should be of the bubbling cup type, so made 
that the pupil cannot touch any part of it with his lips when drinking. 
Where the water is sold by meter, automatic cutoffs which stop the flow of 
water as soon as the pupil is through drinking may be used. In larger 
buildings drinking fountains should be placed on each floor. 

Where the funds and space will permit it is always desirable to place 
the heating plant outside the building, but in many cases the limited 
funds will not permit this to be done. 

There are several good heating devices. The best is unquestionably the 
steam-blast system, and this has the distinct advantage of not being 
patented or controlled by any one company or person. A well-planned 
furnace blast, or even a gravity furnace plant, is good, but is not prac- 
tical for large buildings. 

In the steam-blast plant the air is brought in from the outside and 
passed over steam-heated tempering coils, and is driven by a fan over 
steam-heated coils through ducts and stacks leading to the various rooms. 
The same pressure which drives the air into the rooms forces it out ^again 
at the floor through an opening in the base of a stack leading out "above 
the roof. 

The amount of air entering the room must remain the same at all 
times, and must be at least 1800 cubic feet per hour for each pupil in the 
room. This air entering the room is prevented from becoming too cold or 
too hot by means of a thermostat placed in each room. This thermostat 
is connected with a mixing damper that automatically mixes tempered 
and hot air together in the proper proportion to hold the temperature in 
the room as desired. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



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102 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

The following article on school architecture is from the high authority on 
school buildings, George Bruce, editor of the American School Board Journal : 

"The exterior design of a schoolhouse is largely a matter of taste. 
A handsome and dignified structure will, however, do much in elevating 
the taste of the community and in strengthening local pride. 

"The real importance lies in the interior arrangement and appoint- 
ments. In a practical division of space in keeping with present and 
future requirements the principal labors of a building committee are 
confined. The advantage of one plan, the beauties of another, the at- 
tractiveness of. still another, are presented. The persuasion and pull of a 
local architect against the finish and superior plans of the specialist 
become factors. Under such conditions only the strong, fearless and 
loyal school board member arrives at correct conclusions and formulates 
a wise decision. 

"Some general rules must be observed. The modern schoolhouse must 
provide for wide halls and staircases, ventilated cloakrooms, an econom- 
ical heating system, perfect ventilation, ample and correct lighting, 
ready access to all classrooms, convenient exits, sanitary closets, and 
serviceable blackboarding. The range of necessities is not covered unless 
a system of heat regulation is provided. This is strictly in the interests 
of economy. The efficiency and general order of the schoolroom is greatly 
facilitated by an electric program clock system. A recitation or assembly 
room should be in every building having four or more classrooms." 



SELECTING PLANS FOR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 

School boards are cautioned not to copy the exterior of model school 
buildings without also copying the interior. The exterior should be 
regarded as merely an adaptation to the interior arrangements. 

No school building should be erected except in accordance with the 
ideas of the best school architects. Improvements enough may be dis- 
covered before the building is worn out without ignoring those that are 
now well established. To ignore them is a waste of public money and 
a useless handicap to the school. No person should be entrusted with 
adopting plans for a school building who will not take the time to thor- 
oughly inform himself as to the present requirements for school buildings. 

It is still too common a mistake for a particular school building to be 
decided upon by a school board merely because its exterior appearance 
happens to strike the fancy. The interior arrangement is of vastly more 
importance than the exterior. A good architect can design and orna- 
ment the exterior of a well-arranged interior about as well as one that 
is poorly arranged. A glance through the cuts of this book will show 
that some recent buildings have windows scattered all around as exterior 
ornaments, instead of their being grouped so they will furnish light for 
the rooms from the proper source. Architects frequently explain that 
they are powerless, as the standards and demands of school boards are at 
fault in such cases. If they are frequently at fault from lack of ac- 
quaintance with the modern standards for school buildings, the architect 
who offers antiquated plans for school buildings should offer them as 
antiquated plans and not in the guise of standard school architecture. 



School Buildings and Grounds. 



103 



THE CLAY COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL. 

On the ground floor you will find the heating and ventilating appa- 
ratus, two toilet rooms with equipment for shower baths, a manual- 
training room, a domestic science room, and a fine gymnasium thor- 
oughly equipped. On the first floor are the principal's private office and 
the reception room, four classrooms, commodious commercial department, 
library and study hall with a seating capacity of nearly 200. On the 
second floor are five classrooms, two laboratories and a science lecture 
room, and the auditorium with a seating capacity, including gallery, of 
about 550. The building completed and equipped cost about $50,000. 
The laboratory is in two sections. One section is especially equipped 
with tables and apparatus for individual experimental work in physics 
and botany. The other section is arranged for work in chemistry and 
agriculture. 




CLAY COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL. 
A well lighted building. 



104 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 





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WINFIELD HIGH SCHOOL. 

This building is fireproof in every particular. The heating plant is 
located entirely outside the building. The floors and all partitions are 
of incombustible material. All corridor floors are of cement throughout. 
The ceiling and roof construction are made of steel and concrete. All 
stairways are of iron and concrete, and in addition to the ordinary hand 
rail there is a rail next to the wall so that pupils may protect them- 
selves from falling. 

The gymnasium is dropped below the ground floor level sufficiently 
to give the required height. The shower and locker rooms are reached 
directly from the gymnasium and athletic field. The building is equipped 
throughout for a vacuum cleaning system. The stairways give a clear, 
straight exit in a direct line. 

On the first floor is the superintendent's office, his reception room, 
the principal's office and teachers' rest room, each of which is provided 
with a private toilet and lavatory. The superintendent's office is pro- 
vided with a vault for records. 

The library is virtually a part of the study hall, and is at all times 
under the supervision of the teacher in charge. The laboratories are 
arranged with the lecture room between them and separated from it by 
glass partitions, so that the teacher may have the entire view of both 
laboratories while teaching in the lecture room. Each laboratory has a 
supply room, and the chemical laboratory has a dark room. The main 
auditorium seats 750. 

Additional toilets are placed on each floor. Drinking fountains that 
do not permit the lips to come in contact with the metal are also placed 
on each floor. 

The building is heated by a steam blast that provides 1800 cubic feet 
of fresh air per hour per pupil, and is automatically controlled so that 
the temperature will not vary more than two degrees in any part of the 
building. 



A FEW OF THE SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE 
HUTCHINSON HIGH SCHOOL. 

The building is absolutely fireproof, being constructed throughout of 
brick and reenforced concrete, even the roof being constructed ex- 
clusively of steel and concrete. The building has its own electric light 
and power plant. Not a broom, brush or duster will be used, as the 
building has its own vacuum cleaning system installed throughout. There 
is a gymnasium 44 x 78 feet with 21 feet of space to the ceiling, with 
an observation balcony running around the entire room. The study 
hall and library are together the same in size as the gymnasium, and 
are separated only by a glass partition with connecting doors and a 
window for checking out books. The auditorium, with its balcony, has 
a seating capacity of 800, has a stage 16 x 36 feet, and is as thoroughly 
equipped as any theater. Throughout the entire building the unilateral 
system of lighting is followed, so in every room it is possible to arrange 
the seating so that the lighting is always to the left of the student. The 
automatic clock, program, and bell system installed throughout the 
building makes it possible to carry on four separate school programs 
in any or all parts of the building without any one interfering with any 
other in any way. 

The laboratories are arranged on either side of the lecture room, with 
the necessary supply and cloak rooms. 



108 



State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




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ATCHISON HIGH SCHOOL. 

This building, designed for high school and grades, is so constructed 
as to be used for high-school work exclusively, without change or ad- 
dition, except in the furniture. 

The floors and stairways are of reenforced concrete. Hardwood floors 
are placed over the concrete in rooms in which seats are permanently 
fastened. 

An assembly room for over 300, and an auditorium seating over 900, 
are valuable features. 

Eight rooms have electrical plugs for the stereopticon. 

Three standpipes with eleven fire-hose connections add to the security 
against fire. 

Four stairways and two fire escapes provide exit from the second 
floor. Two stairways and one fire escape give safety to the balcony. 

The outside walls are of stone, brick and terra cotta. The roof is of 
slate, with copper gutters and valleys. 

There are five special rooms for science. 

The fan system of heating and ventilation is used, with automatic 
regulation. 

Manual training, cooking and sewing have special rooms and 
equipment. 

A gymnasium, lockers and shower baths are provided. 

The cost of building and equipment is approximately $125,000. 




NEW HIGH SCHOOL, ATCHISON. 

Observe the dignity and the commanding view that the terraced elevation gives 
to this imposing structure. 



112 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 



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School Buildings and Grounds. 



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WICHITA MANUAL TRAINING HIGH SCHOOL. 

The length of the building is 228 feet and its maximum depth is 125 
feet. The boiler house is outside of the school building, and its roof 
is below the level of the ground-floor windows of the building. The 
first-floor level is high enough for full windows to all ground-floor rooms. 
There are four well-lighted stairways. All classrooms are provided with 
unilateral light. Physics and chemistry laboratories are on the ground 
floor and are provided with additional storage space and dark rooms. 
The lecture rooms open off the laboratories and are arranged for am- 
phitheaters large enough for double classes. The manual-training rooms 
are provided for woodworking, wood turning, forge and machine shops, 
and mechanical drawing room. For domestic science there is a cooking 
room and a sewing room with storerooms. The assembly hall will seat 
1200 pupils and it has ten exits. The lunch room will accommodate half 
of the school at one lunch period; it has a large kitchen and is arranged 
for rapid and convenient service. Lockers and toilet rooms are pro- 
vided for on each floor. The corridors, stairways and boiler, rooms are 
fireproof. The cost, ready for equipment, is $175,000. 




NEW HIGH SCHOOL, WICHITA. 



114 State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 




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INDEX. 



Page. 

Introduction 3 

Location 3 

Water Supply 4 

Size and Adaptation of Grounds 6 

Beautifying the Grounds 9 

Improvement of School Grounds 12 

Beautifying the School Grounds 17 

Planting Plan for a Rural School Yard 22 

Playgrounds 24 

The Colorado Idea Concerning Playground Equipment 27 

The Model Rural School Building 34 

The Model School Building 35 

Work Room, Store Room, Teacher's Closet, and Fuel Room. . 37 

Usefulness of the Work Room 42 

The Library 42 

Lighting 43 

Heating and Ventilation 46 

Seating 50 

Blackboards 51 

Doors and Walls 51 

The Model District School— Hays 53 

Repairing and Remodeling Old Building 65 

School Sanitation 69 

Water Closets 72 

A Septic Tank for Rural Schools 75 

Sanitary School Buildings and Grounds 75 

Needed Equipment for a Schoolroom 80 

A Model Two-room Schoolhouse 81 

General Arrangement of School Buildings 89 

The High School of To-day 94 

Special Features in High-school Building 97 

School Architecture 102 

Selecting Plans for School Buildings 102 

The Clay County High School 103 

Winfield High School 107 

Special Features of Hutchinson High School 107 

Atchison High School Ill 

Wichita Manual Training High School 113 

(115) 






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